PubMedDate not supplied
Cutaneous and subcutaneous sclerosis of venous origin ("hypodermite chronique" to the French and "indurated cellulitis" to the Anglo-saxons) is always created by a "varicose vein-canyon", which communicates with one or several inadequate perforating? Varicose vein-canyons, or rather the circulatory and hypertensive disturbances that they engender, are without doubt mainly responsible for chronic panniculitis. It is extremely important to inactivate them to bring about regression of the sclerosis. The various ways of tackling the problem are based on three different principles: --contrasting the reflux from varicose vein-canyons by external compression; --cutting only vertical long reflux, by ablation or sclerosis of the inadequate saphenous veins and the other proximal varicose veins; --adding to the suppression of the long reflux by interruption of short reflux in the legs. The author insists yet again on the value of the "Glauco Bassi hook method", for which panniculitis is a choice indication, either because is enables the largest of the varicose vein-canyons (the "Leonardo vein") to be reached easily (and sometimes even to remove a few centimeters by rolling around forceps introduced into two incisions ten millimetres long at the most), or because there are few alternatives for interrupting the leakage points, if "sunk" varicose-veins are involved.