A survey of current attitudes of british and irish vascular surgeons to venous sclerotherapy

Aim:To determine current practice amongst vascular surgeons regarding venous sclerotherapy.Method:A postal questionnaire was sent to 350 members of the Vascular Surgical Society of Great Britain and Ireland.Results:There were 218 replies (62%). Forty surgeons (18.3%) never injected varicose veins (VV) although six injected venous flares. Most surgeons (n = 168, 77.1%) reserved sclerotherapy for residual VV postoperatively. Primary varicose veins without proximal incompetence were injected by 152 (69.7%) and recurrent VV without proximal incompetence by 141 (64.7%). Sixteen surgeons only injected residual postoperative VV. Few surgeons injected VV in the presence of proximal incompetence.Where specified, 46% of respondents were injecting fewer VVs than in previous years. Only 5% were injecting more. By contrast, 44% were injecting more venous flares than previously (p