Sclerotherapy is a treatment that has been effective in treating venous malformations and lymphatic malformations. It consists of a percutaneous (through skin) injection of a substance into the abnormal veins of the venous malformation. The substance irritates the wall of the vessel which results in the formation of a blot clot within the vessel. The blood clot will effectively stop the flow of blood through the bloodvessel and if the irritation is severe enough, the blood vessel will be destroyed and replaced with scar tissue. These procedures are usually performed in an angiography suite, with the assistance of ultrasound guidance and “fluoroscopy” or real-time x-ray monitoring. If sclerotherapy is the only treatment, several treatments may be necessary to accomplish this. The function of surgery in this scenario is to control and/or prevent bleeding during the surgery. The advantages of this combined form of treatment are extremely significant. The intra operative blood loss is reduced significantly and the ease of surgery is greatly facilitated especially when important and vital structures are contained within the venous malformation.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 03:25:33 +0000
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