Why Research Matters: Updating and Creating Guidelines As the AVLS conducts research, the goal is to understand venous and lymphatic disease and improve venous and lymphatic medicine for all patients. Throughout the past five years, several guidelines committees convened to update or write new guidelines including for C2, Pelvic Varices, and Lymphedema.
C2 GUIDELINES The American Vein and Lymphatic Society (AVLS), The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the American Venous Forum (AVF) joined to update the 2011 SVS/AVF clinical practice guidelines and provide new evidence-based recommendations on critical issues affecting the care of patients with varicose veins. Each recommendation is based on a recent, independent systematic review and meta-analysis of the diagnostic tests and treatments options for patients with lower extremity varicose veins. The guidelines include evidence-based recommendations on the evaluation of CEAP (Clinical Class, Etiology, Anatomy, Pathology) Class 2 varicose vein patients with duplex scanning and other diagnostic tests, on open surgical treatment versus endovenous ablation techniques, on thermal versus non-thermal ablations of the superficial truncal veins, on the management of incompetent perforating veins in CEAP Class 2 disease, and on the concomitant vs staged treatment of varicose tributaries in patients who undergo ablation of incompetent superficial truncal veins.
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