Early endovenous ablation speeds venous ulcer healing

The most common method for endovenous ablation used in this multicenter study was ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy, a minimally-invasive procedure the authors said had versatility and acceptability.

However, they commented that some previous, large randomized trials have suggested that the rates of complete venous occlusion are lower with foam sclerotherapy than with thermal ablation.

The main complications seen with endovenous ablation were pain and deep vein thrombosis.

The authors pointed out that two limitations of their trial were that patients with a leg ulcer that had been present for more than 6 months were excluded from patient selection and that the 450 patients enrolled had been selected from a larger group of around 6,500.