Ultrasound-guided Endovenous Diode Laser in the Treatment of Congenital Venous Malformations: Preliminary Experience
Section snippets
MATERIALS AND METHODS
After obtaining institutional review board approval, we retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients who began ultrasound guided endovenous laser treatment of VM at our institution between August 2002 and August 2003.
Procedure Success
A total of 17 procedures were performed for eight lesions in six patients. All procedures were technically successful. A mean of 2.1 treatment sessions was required per lesion. The mean interval between sessions was 4.1 months. A mean of 3.6 laser passes were performed at each treatment session.
Follow-up
Follow-up time was calculated from last laser procedure performed and ranged from 0 to 25 months, with a mean of 14.5 months. All lesions decreased in size after laser treatment, by patient report (three
DISCUSSION
Venous malformations can cause pain and swelling in patients and can lead to activity limitation in otherwise young and healthy patients. VM are usually single but can be multiple, can occur anywhere in the body, and in up to two-thirds of patients, can infiltrate along neurovascular distributions (10). They may be associated with a variety of syndromes and, in these, mutations have been identified in genes that control smooth muscle and endothelial cells (2). Current treatments, including
CONCLUSIONS
In this small series of patients treated with US-guided endovenous diode laser of venous malformations, there was improvement or resolution of the presenting symptoms in all patients and a decrease in size of all lesions seen, with minimal morbidity. Our early experience suggests that endovenous diode laser therapy is an effective treatment with minimal morbidity. Future prospective studies including more standardized clinical, photographic and imaging follow-up will be useful to further define
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2014, European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular SurgeryCitation Excerpt :There were no other minor or major complications such as thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or systematic allergic reactions. Previous studies have suggested that laser treatment of VM is, in fact, the method of choice in some settings owing to its high success rate and very low incidence of complications when employed properly.14 However, the sample sizes have been relatively small, and studies have only been conducted over the short term.
Vascular Anomalies of the Head and Neck
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Presented at the 2004 SIR Annual Meeting.
None of the authors has identified a potential conflict of interest.