Venoplasty and Venous Stenting in Patients with Chronic Venous Insufficiency in the Lower Extremities

Background: Venoplasty and stenting is a minimally invasive therapy that can be used for patients with deep venous insufficiency in the lower extremities. This study aimed at investigating the effect of venoplasty and venous stenting in patients with chronic venous insufficiency in the lower limbs. Methods: This prospective case-series study recruited patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency in the lower limbs candidated for venoplasty in the Vascular Clinic of Sina Hospital in Tehran, Iran. Venoplasty and stenting was done if the deep venous system in the lower extremities had stenosis or obstruction on venography. The patients were visited 1, 3, and 6 months after venoplasty to assess their symptoms, venous clinical severity, and venous disability. Primary and secondary patency was evaluated with Doppler ultrasound. Results: Seventy-three patients were included in the study. The follow-up of the patients' clinical symptoms showed significant improvement rates of about 90%, 88.7%, 92.5%, and 100% in claudication, edema, pain, and ulcers-respectively- only 1 month after the procedure. The stent patency rates were 93.2, 91.5, and 92.4 in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th postprocedural months, correspondingly. The venous clinical severity score and the venous disability score before the procedure were 14.2 and 2.73, respectively, which were decreased to 5 and 1.1, correspondingly, at 6 months' follow-up (p value < 0.001). Conclusion: Venoplasty and stenting in our patients with chronic deep venous insufficiency in the lower extremities conferred a significant improvement in clinical symptoms and a high percentage of patency.