Quality of Life of Patients With Chronic Venous Insufficiency of the Lower Extremities Before and After Endovascular Laser Ablation: A Prospective Pilot Study Using the Chronic Venous Insufficiency Quality of Life Questionnaire 20 (CIVIQ-20)

Background Chronic venous insufficiency of the lower extremities is a condition in which blood stagnates in the venous system, causing symptoms of pain, fatigue, leg edema, and cramps. Although this disease progresses slowly and is not fatal, its symptoms lead to a decline in quality of life, affecting the patient's work. One of the current surgical treatment methods for patients with indications for surgical removal of the saphenous vein is endovenous laser ablation (EVLA). After EVLA, besides evaluating the effectiveness of surgery, and the rate of complications, one of the aspects that need attention is improving quality of life. The objective of this study was to assess the quality of life of patients with chronic venous insufficiency of the lower extremities before and after endovascular laser intervention, analyzing changes in ChronIc Venous Insufficiency Quality of Life Questionnaire 20 (CIVIQ-20) scores in each domain of quality of life. Methodology A total of 41 patients with chronic venous insufficiency of the lower extremities were enrolled in this study, who were classified as C2 to C6 and were treated by endovenous laser ablation. QoL was measured by using the ChronIc Venous Insufficiency Quality of Life Questionnaire 20 (CIVIQ-20) questionnaire pre- and post-operatively. Pain scores and clinical severity were also evaluated using the visual analog scale (VAS) and the venous clinical severity score (VCSS) one month after EVLA. Results The mean age was 52.17 ± 11.23 years. The mean duration of symptoms was 7.29 ± 3.58 years, the median laser ablation time was 40 minutes, and the mean time to return to normal activities was 5.7 ± 1.8 days. The CIVIQ-20 score at baseline was 47.8 ± 7.4 and 31.1 ± 3.9 after one-month laser ablation. The quality of life has significantly improved after intervention using laser treatment (p < 0.001). The VAS and VCSS scores after laser treatment were lower than the baseline (p < 0.001). In our study, there was a statistically significant correlation between the change of CIVIQ-20 and the change of VCSS (r = 0.63, p < 0.001). Conclusion CIVIQ-20 is a reliable toolkit to assess the quality of life of patients with chronic venous insufficiency of the lower extremities. The patient's quality of life improved markedly after the intervention.