The Indications and Outcomes of Major Venous Reconstructions

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We wanted to review our indications and the results of venous reconstructions. METHOD: We retrospectively investigated the medical records of 64 patients who underwent vein reconstructions between Jan 1992 and Oct 2006 at 2 university hospitals. The clinical outcomes of venous reconstruction were analyzed according to the sites of venous reconstruction, the indications and the venous patency. RESULT: The indications for venous reconstructions were traumatic vein injury (58%), malignant tumor (28%), Nut-cracker syndrome (9%) and others (5%). The venous reconstruction procedure included graft interposition (48%, 24 vein grafts and 7 prosthetic grafts), lateral venorrhaphy (19%), end-to-end anastomosis (16%), patch angioplasty (6%), vein transposition (9%) and 1 case (2%) of vein bypass. 10 forearm replantations were included among the venous reconstructions. There were 4 mortalities and 4 limb amputations after venous reconstructions. According to the method of venous reconstructions, early venous thrombosis occurred in 3.6%, 7.1% and 37.5% of the patients after venorrhaphy, reconstruction with autologous vein and prosthetic graft, respectively. CONCLUSION: After venous reconstructions for various indications, we found that the clinical significance was related with an early venous patency, but not with the late patency.