The importance of anatomical variants of the sapheno-femoral junction in lower-limb varicose vein surgery.

BACKGROUND: In the surgical strategy of lower limb varicose veins, the fundamental objective is to prevent relapses. For this purpose, after having examined the international literature on the most frequent relapse causes, the authors emphasize that erroneous diagnosis, varicose disease natural development and incorrect surgical treatment are very important. METHODS: They report their experience about the sapheno-femoral junction anatomic variants that have been verified at the surgical table on 532 consecutive patients operated on for lower limb varicose veins. Of 532 patients 449 (84.4%) patients were women and 83 (15.6%) were men; all of them were, on average 49+/-26 years old. They were all with derivative from sapheno-femoral junction incontinence varicose veins that can be classified according to CEAP (C2-3-4/Ep/As 2-3/Pr). On these patients, 430 (80.8%) patients have had an operation of internal saphena long stripping; 65 (12.3%) patients have had an operation of saphena short stripping and 37 (6.9%) patients have had an operation of internal simple rossectomy. RESULTS: The authors have inspected all collateral veins of the sapheno-femoral junction and they have noticed 135 variants (25.2%) that are very important for the surgeon and, among these variants, they have discovered some collaterals, that flow under the sapheno-femoral junction (about 4%), are particularly insidious and they are the cause of sure relapse if they are ignored. CONCLUSIONS: The purpose of the work is to emphasize the importance of knowing sapheno-femoral junction changeability that is often the cause of relapse after surgical treatment.