[Surgery of the saphenous-popliteal junction in the treatment of initial insufficiency of the small saphenous vein].

Insufficiency of the sapheno-popliteal junction may be the first sign of varicose disease, and represents one of several ways that lower limb-venous insufficiency uses to present itself. Doppler ultrasound is particularly helpful in diagnosing this often subclinical insufficiency. Based on satisfactory results in a series of 18 patients treated between 1985 and 1988 (mean follow-up 1.5 years), the authors suggest treating sapheno-popliteal junction insufficiency by means of crossectomy, under local anesthesia, and on an out-patient basis. When surgical treatment is performed during the first stages of the disease, the consequent irreversible damages to the lesser saphenous vein due to stasis are avoided, and thereby, a true varicose state is avoided.