Superficial vein thrombosis: a consensus statement.

INTERNATIONAL ANGIOLOGY 203 extremities, but potentially affecting any superficial vein in the body.7 With the increasing use of intravenous catheters and injections (e.g. drug abusers), upper extremity SVT remains a growing problem. SVT is an acute disease where thrombus formation is connected with an inflammatory response of the venous wall. This may be caused by mechanical, chemical, biological and very rarely infectious factors. The most common form is a primary thrombosis in a varicose vein (VV) with a secondary sterile inflammation of the vein wall (varicophlebitis).8 Non varicose NV-SVT is a group of miscellaneous disorders, where thrombosis is the dominating feature in some conditions, while inflammation dominates in other cases. It is not easy to distinguish the degree of thrombosis and inflammation, at the beginning of the disease but duplex ultrasound (U/S) may help in the diagnosis. Due to a marked inflammatory reaction of the venous wall the thrombus firmly adheres to it making the risk of pulmonary embolism (PE) smaller than in DVT. However, the inflammation does not protect from PE as shown by Partsch in 1979 and Verlato in 1999 with similar incidence of PE, around 30%.9, 10 An important inflammatory activation is also described in DVT.11-13 The term superficial thrombophlebitis should be discouraged because inflammation and infection is not the primary pathology. It should be called superficial vein thrombosis in order to avoid the unnecessary administration of antibiotics and the misconception that SVT is benign. CONSENSUS