EXTERNAL VALVULOPLASTY OF THE SAPHENOFEMORAL JUNCTION

Thirty-five patients (32 women, 3 men, mean age thirty-four years old) underwent external valvuloplasty of the saphenofemoral junction (EV-S FJ). The surgical rationale of this operation is the evidence, in the first stage of primary varicose disease, of a normal valvular apparatu s in a dilatated phlebosclerotic vein wall. EV-SFJ restores valve func tion by correcting vein wall dilatation.EV-SFJ was performed under loc al anesthesia and, in the last 10 cases, with intraoperative angioscop y. This examination confirms the presence of a complete apparatus of t he terminal and of the subterminal long saphenous valves and allows th e intraoperative control of the correction of vein wall dilatation. Fo llow-up was from five to fifty-seven months (average forty-two months) .