PULMONARY EMBOLISM FOLLOWING THE INJECTION TREATMENT OF VARICOSE VEINS

Numerous authors report a low incidence of serious complications following the injection therapy of varicose veins. McPheeters¹ has reported seven deaths in a series of 53,000 cases. Four of these were due to embolism. Silverman² collected nineteen cases of embolism from the literature and added one case of his own. In his series there were fifteen deaths and five recoveries. Kettel³ reported ten deaths due to embolism in a series of 60,000 cases. Westerborn⁴ has recently reported eleven deaths from embolism in a series of 30,000 cases; he also mentions fifty-three additional cases of embolism. Probstein⁵ reported two cases of anaphylaxis and three of embolism with no deaths. Kilbourne⁶ collected a series of twenty deaths due to emboli and other causes. An occasional death from allergy has been reported.⁷

We believe that embolism is the most common cause of death following the injection