Three-Dimensional Volumetric Analysis of Venous Malformations for Assessing the Effectiveness of Percutaneous Sclerotherapy

Abstract

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Percutaneous sclerotherapy can be used to successfully treat venous malformations (VMs) of the head, neck, and limbs. However, the standard curative effect of sclerotherapy has rarely been analyzed, and there is currently no accurate statistical method to measure the volume of VMs after sclerotherapy. Here, we propose a novel three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction method to evaluate this effect. OBJECTIVE: To test the feasibility of 3D software (MIMICS 19.0) to evaluate the treatment effect of sclerotherapy. METHODS: This retrospective study included patients with VMs on the head, neck, and limbs who were treated with ethanol sclerotherapy or foam sclerotherapy every 8 weeks. MIMICS 19.0 was used to calculate the performance of the lesion after treatment and measure the VM volumes before and after the treatment. The effect of the clinical treatment dose on the lesion was evaluated, and the treatment effect of each patient was recorded. The relationship between the number of treatments and the reduced volume of VMs was analyzed. RESULTS: Based on the MIMICS-calculated regions of interest (ROI), we found that 1 mL of ethanol reduced the lesion by 473 mm3 and that one dosage of foam (1 mL of polidocanol and 4 mL air content) reduced the lesion by 2 138 mm3, demonstrating that the foam sclerosing agent exhibited greater efficacy in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The MIMICS 3D volume reconstruction method can effectively and safely evaluate the efficacy of sclerotherapy and provide a preoperative evaluation. This method is simple, accurate, and feasible.

Keywords

• Venous malformations
• Three-dimensional reconstruction
• Digital imaging technology
• Sclerotherapy