Lower extremity venous insufficiency secondary to saphenous vein insufficiency is a common medical condition that decreases a patient's quality of life. Traditionally treated with high ligation and stripping, minimally invasive procedures using endovenous thermal ablation techniques, such as endovenous laser ablation, have evolved. The use of detailed imaging and advances in the understanding o...

Observations were made on an isolated hind leg preparation of dogs, perfused with blood and various homogeneous perfusates. A wide range of intravascular pressures were used while a constant arteriovenous pressure gradient was maintained. It was found that parallel increases in arterial and venous pressures result in a reduction in resistance to blood flow. A similar change in resistance is obs...

May-Thurner syndrome (MTS) is caused by venous occlusion because of compression of the iliac vein by the iliac artery and vertebral body, leading to left lower extremity deep venous thrombosis, eventually resulting in a series of symptoms. Endovascular treatment has now become the most preferred method of treatment of MTS. The authors report a 66-year-old woman who was hospitalized because of i...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that fasciotomy may impair the function of the calf muscle pump, which in turn could result in the development of chronic venous insufficiency. DESIGN A cohort study of patients with a history of lower extremity fasciotomy. SETTING An urban trauma center. PATIENTS Seventeen of the 83 patients identified through trauma, vascular, and/or orthopedic registrie...

Phlegmasia cerulea dolens (PCD) is a medical emergency that can lead to venous gangrene of the lower extremity. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment is crucial for limb salvage. There are two treatment options (endovascular or surgical). In the endovascular era, catheter-directed thrombolysis is the treatment of choice to achieve venous outflow. However, surgical thrombectomy is indicated in ce...

In 1837, Piorry, a French professor of medicine stated, "It is rather difficult to understand why the investigation of veins has been passed over almost in silence, while such a great diagnostic value has been attached to the investigation of arteries." Even today, our understanding of venous disease pales in comparison to our understanding of arterial disease. This is despite the fact that mil...

Chronic venous insufficiency is a major medical disease in the United States. With a total population of 300 million, it is estimated that 25 million persons in this country alone have symptoms of this disease (1 in 12). Great saphenous vein reflux is the most common form of venous insufficiency in symptomatic patients and is most frequently responsible for varicose veins of the lower extremity...

Patients with chronic venous insufficiency arguably have been relegated to a standard of care that is lower than that for those with the more appealing entity of peripheral arterial disease. Fortunately, the collaboration of an expanding group of clinicians (including cardiologists and vascular medicine specialists) with vascular surgeons is stimulating a renewed interest in the management of p...