Long saphenous stripping from ankle to groin is followed by an unacceptably high (23-58%) instance of neurological complications resulting from saphenous nerve trauma. Sapheno-femoral ligation without stripping avoids this complication, but with a reported varicose vein recurrence rate of 60%. Stripping the incompetent long saphenous vein from groin to upper calf in 96 legs of 71 patients has been followed by saphenous neurological symptoms in 4.2%, with a recurrence rate of 12.5%, half of which were suitable for injection sclerotherapy.
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