Journal «Angiology and Vascular Surgery» • 

2004 • VOLUME 10 • №4

CHANGE IN THE TONE OF DEEP VEINS OF THE LOWER EXTREMITIES IN PATIENTS WITH VARICOCELE

G.A. Baranov, M.O. Andreev, P.G. Dunaev
Surgical Department, Junction Hospital, Rybinsk Station, Northern Railway,
Rybinsk, Russia

Fifty patients with stage II–III varicocele and 47 normal volunteers were examined using an "Aloka-SSD-500" system. Assessments were made of the tonico-elastic properties of the venous wall of the femoral and popliteal veins when their diameter increased at clinostasis in response to the growth of intravenous pressure on the Valsalva test. The changes in the diameter of the same venous fragment were recorded before and at the height of the functional test. The results of the study were as follows: a the diameter of the clinostetic lumen of the common femoral vein in normal volunteers and patients with varicocele was of no statistical power and constituted 8.9±1.0 mm and 9.4±0.8 mm, respectively, with p=0.01. On the Valsalva test in the control group the relative increment of the femoral vein caliber was 22.6±5.7%, with p=0.01. In patients with varicocele,it amounted to 61.1±10.0%, with p=0.01. In both groups, the popliteal vein responded to the functional tests equivalently by 19.6±6.9 and 17.5±5.0, with p=0.01. Dilatation of the femoral vein by more than 1/3 of the initial lumen in response to the Valsalva test was encountered in 84% of cases with varicocele whereas in the control group, it originated in 6% of cases. Assessment of the results of the study allows the conclusion to be drawn that the biomechanical properties of the wall of the common femoral artery are weakened in patients with varicocele, with the popliteal vein being intact. Thus, formation of the "tension chamber" in the femoral vein may be implicated in the pathogenesis of ileospermatic reflux origination. In patients with varicocele, the lowering of the tone of the femoral veins may be linked with the higher incidence of the hemodynamic varicocele type and with the presence of the ileospermatic reflux. The use of micronized diosmine in the given patient group may be substantiated pathogenetically.

KEY WORDS: varicocele, deep veins, venous tone.

P. 70

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