Anthony James Lopez

Until recently, the main indication for pelvic vein embolization (PVE) in women was to treat pelvic venous congestion syndrome (PVC) but increasingly, patients with refluxing pelvic veins associated with leg varicosities are also being treated. A more unusual reason for PVE is to treat pelvic venous malformations, although such lesions may be treated with sclerotherapy alone. Embolotherapy for treating PVC has been performed for many years with several published studies included in this review, whilst an emerging indication for PVE is to treat lower limb varicosities associated with pelvic vein reflux. Neither group, however, has been subjected to an adequate randomized, controlled trial. Consequently, some of the information presented in this review should be considered anecdotal (level III evidence) at this stage, and a satisfactory ‘proof’ of clinical efficacy remains deficient until higher-level evidence is presented. Furthermore, a wide range of techniques not accepted by all are used, and some standardization will be required based on future mandatory prospective studies. Large studies have also clearly shown an unacceptably high recurrence rate of leg varicose veins following venous surgery. Furthermore, minimally or non-invasive imaging is now revealing that there is a refluxing pelvic venous source in a significant percentage of women with de novo leg varicose veins, and many more with recurrent varicosities. Considering that just over half the world’s population is female and a significant number of women not only have pelvic venous reflux, but also have associated leg varicosities, minimally invasive treatment of pelvic venous incompetence will become a common procedure.

Pelvic vein incompetence is common in patients with atypical varicose veins, contributing to their recurrence after surgery. Therefore, refluxing pelvic veins should be identified and treated. We present our experience with pelvic vein embolisation in patients presenting with varicose veins. Patients presenting with varicose veins with a duplex-proven contribution from perivulval veins undergo transvaginal duplex sonography (TVUS) to identify refluxing pelvic veins. Those with positive scans undergo embolisation before surgical treatment of their lower limb varicose veins. A total of 218 women (mean age of 46.3 years) were treated. Parity was documented in the first 60 patients, of whom 47 (78.3%) were multiparous, 11 (18.3%) had had one previous pregnancy, and 2 (3.3%) were nulliparous. The left ovarian vein was embolised in 78%, the right internal iliac in 64.7%, the left internal iliac in 56.4%, and the right ovarian vein in 42.2% of patients. At follow-up TVUS, mild reflux only was seen in 16, marked persistent reflux in 6, and new reflux in 3 patients. These 9 women underwent successful repeat embolisation. Two patients experienced pulmonary embolisation of the coils, of whom 1 was asymptomatic and 1 was successfully retrieved; 1 patient had a misplaced coil protruding into the common femoral vein; and 1 patient had perineal thrombophlebitis. The results of our study showed that pelvic venous embolisation by way of a transjugular approach is a safe and effective technique in the treatment of pelvic vein reflux.