The treatment of venous malformations with percutaneous sclerotherapy at a single academic medical center

Purpose We report a retrospective analysis of venous malformation patients treated with percutaneous sclerotherapy, describing their clinical manifestations, therapeutic outcomes and procedural complications. Materials and methods We reviewed our Vascular Anomalies database for all patients who underwent percutaneous sclerotherapy for venous malformation between January 2005 and July 2011 and retrieved 186 patients, out of which 116 were included in the final analysis. The majority of patients were treated using 100% alcohol (72%) and the rest were treated with <100% alcohol, Sodium Tetradecyl Sulfate or combination of these therapies. The most common location was the lower extremity in 67 patients (58%), followed by the head and neck in 27 (23%) and the upper extremity in 11 (9%). Retrospective review of medical records was performed. Outcomes were classified on an improvement scale based on clinical therapeutic effects. Results Two-hundred and forty-five sclerotherapy procedures were performed in 116 patients, of which 52 patients (45%) underwent a single procedure, 32 (28%) had two procedures and 32 (28%) underwent 3 procedures. Median follow-up period from the last procedure was 2.5 months (interquartile range of 2.0 to 6.75 months). Significant improvement was seen in 37 patients (32%), moderate improvement in 31 (27%), mild improvement in 20 (17%), no improvement in 21 (18%) and worse than before in 7 (6%) patients. Major post-procedural complications were nerve injuries in 6 patients (5%), deep vein thrombosis in 5 (4%), muscle contracture in 2 (2%), infection in 3 (3%), skin necrosis in 4 (3%) and other complications in 3 (3%). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that 76% of our patients with venous malformation had some level of improvement in symptoms with majority (72%) undergoing only one or two percutaneous sclerotherapy procedure/s. Although major complications occurred in 20% of the patients, majority (74%) of the complications either resolved spontaneously or were successfully treated.