Inflammatory Responses in Varicose VeinsSurgery: Conventional Venous Stripping andEndovenous Radiofrequency Ablation (EV-RFA)

Background: Varicose veins surgery was evolved in the past decade. Many studies showed that endovenous ra-diofrequency ablation (EV-RFA), a novel method for varicose veins treatment, produced complications fewer than conventional venous stripping, particularly postoperative pain and ecchymosis. There were a lot of studies reported about inflammatory response but there were few studies compare inflammatory response between procedures. This study purpose compares preoperative and postoperative level of serum Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) to determine the inflammatory response of EV-RFA and conventional venous stripping. This study also compares visual analogue scale (VAS) and ecchymoses between these two procedures. Methods: A prospective cohort study measuring IL-6 and CRP level at before and 24-hour after surgery in sympto-matic varicose vines patients who underwent either EV-RFA or conventional venous stripping. Results: Fifty-nine patients were included, 27 patients were treated by conventional venous stripping and 32 pa-tients were treated by EV-RFA. There was no different in demographic characteristics among two groups. Twenty-four hour postoperative level of IL-6 and CRP significantly increased (p<0.001 and<0.001, respectively) in both EV-RFA group (p<0.001 and<0.001, respectively) and venous stripping group (p=0.043 and <0.001, respectively) com-pare to preoperative level. Increasing in 24 h postoperative level of IL-6 and CRP in EV-RFA group was significantly lower than in venous stripping group (p<0.001 and p=0.045, respectively). Postoperative VAS and ecchymosis were also significantly different between EV-RFA group and venous stripping group (p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). Conclusions: EV-RFA produced inflammatory response, VAS and ecchymosis significantly lower than conventional venous stripping.