Treatment of venous leg ulcers with ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy: Healing, long-term recurrence and quality of life evaluation

Abstract

Venous leg ulcers (VLU) generally have slow healing rates (HR) and frequent recurrence rates (RR). The underlying etiology is venous hypertension. The present observational cohort study was to determine healing and RR in VLU treated with ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy (UGFS). One hundred and eighty VLU were treated with polidocanol microfoam monthly under ultrasound control. Median follow-up was 30 months (range: 17-40). One hundred seventy-two (95.6%) ulcers healed during the study. The overall twenty-four week HR was 79.4% and was significantly higher (95.1%) in patients with isolated great saphenous vein incompetence than in those with great saphenous vein plus perforator (91.7%) or exclusive perforator incompetence (78.9%) (p < 0.01). Patients without deep vein incompetence had a significantly higher 6-month HR (89.8%) than those with (67.4%) (p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis identified the following independent risk factors: chronicity > 12 months (OR 7.69), area > 6 cm(2) (OR 4.24), lipodermatoesclerosis (OR 12.22), history of > 3 previous ulcers (OR 5.57) and history of deep vein thrombosis (OR 6.18). One, two and three year ulcer RR were 8.1%, 14.9%, and 20.8%, respectively. Isolated perforator incompetence and previous history of venous surgery were significantly (p = 0.03) associated with a higher RR. VLU treated with microfoam sclerotherapy are associated with high HR and low mid-term RR.