Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate complications in patients with head and neck venous malformations (VMs) treated with foam sclerotherapy using sodium tetradecyl sulfate (STS).
Methods: The authors retrospectively evaluated the complications, pain. and degree of satisfaction in 69 consecutive patients affected by cervicofacial VM managed with STS using the Tessari method in a single institution.
Results: The average number of procedures for each patient was 2.1. The most frequent complication was blistering. We observed 1 patient of temporary weakness of a facial nerve branch, 1 paradoxical embolism, and 1 orbital compartment syndrome.The average pain score was 0 (no pain at all) (51.5%). There was no statistically significant correlation between patient satisfaction and the presence of complications or the degree of pain.
Conclusions: Sclerotherapy with STS is an effective treatment that yields to very high patient satisfaction. This procedure has an overall low complication rate and is usually effective within a few sessions. However, severe complications may occur; these must be pointed out in the informed consent and the surgeon must be aware of and ready to quickly treat them to prevent long-term sequelae.