Abstract

Even though EVLA is increasingly popular and together with other minimally-invasive techniques is rapidly replacing surgical stripping, surgical treatment is still widely used. Our study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and the quality of life following either endovenous laser ablation (EVLA) or conventional surgery for varicose veins of the lower limbs. Aim and Objective of the study: the present study is aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and the quality of life in varicose veins patients who had undergone endovenous laser ablation or open surgery. Materials and Methods: It is a prospective randomised study. A total of 268 patients were treated for symptomatic varicose veins since the previous year, among them 130 patients underwent open surgery and 138 patients received endovenous laser ablation. Results: Disease-specific quality of life at six weeks was significantly better in the EVLA group. Similarly, VCSS and AVVQ scores at six weeks were also better in the EVLA group. Patients in the EVLA group experienced less postoperative pain and therefore needed fewer supplementary analgesic drugs. In addition, patients in the EVLA group managed to return to work and normal activities sooner than those in the surgery group. However no statistically significant differences were found between groups for clinical recurrence, overall satisfaction, rate of complications and secondary procedures at the end of one year. Discussion and Conclusion: Both techniques — EVLA and surgery — yielded similar results in terms of efficacy, clinical recurrence rates and overall patient satisfaction. Although in the present study we did not find EVLA to be superior to surgical stripping in the long term, a significant difference was seen in the immediate post operative period in terms of post operative pain and the duration of time required to return to work. Therefore, we assume that EVLA should be recommended over surgical stripping, especially for patients who need to resume to work in post-operative period

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