Diagnostic et traitement des varices des membres inférieurs - KCE
Diagnostic et traitement des varices des membres inférieurs - KCE
Diagnostic et traitement des varices des membres inférieurs - KCE
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
14 Varicose Veins <strong>KCE</strong> Reports 164<br />
3 RESULTS: DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURES FOR<br />
VARICOSE VEINS<br />
3.1 IDENTIFIED STUDIES AND QUALITY APPRAISAL<br />
3.1.1 Selection of two diagnostic studies<br />
The literature search for relevant diagnostic RCTs was carried out in January 2011<br />
identifying 933 citations. The majority of citations were excluded on the basis of title<br />
and abstract, mainly because the population or interventions were without the scope of<br />
this study. The other papers (n=18) were r<strong>et</strong>rieved in full and reviewed in d<strong>et</strong>ail. Due to<br />
the low number of relevant trials an additional database search of Medline and EMBASE<br />
was carried out in May 2011 with a search strategy <strong>des</strong>igned to capture observational<br />
studies. This search yielded 921 citations but no new relevant studies were identified<br />
from this search. The reference lists of all relevant articles and reviews were scanned to<br />
identify any further relevant studies.<br />
On the basis of the full text, seven of the 18 studies were excluded :<br />
• two evaluated clinical examination as the index test40 41;<br />
• four had outcomes not relevant to diagnosis such as cost data or prevalence<br />
of reflux at different anatomical sites42-45;<br />
• one studied incomp<strong>et</strong>ent perforating veins, a patient group out of the scope<br />
of this review46.<br />
Nine other studies on hand-held doppler were further excluded upon the advice of<br />
experts and validators. This technique has not been in use in many years: in 2006 an<br />
international consensus agreed upon the role of duplex ultrasound for the preoperative<br />
assessment of varicose veins 26 . The quality and results of these nine studies<br />
can be found in appendix 9.2.4 and 9.2.5.<br />
Therefore, two studies were finally included and assessed for their m<strong>et</strong>hodological<br />
quality.<br />
Figure 1 shows the results of the literature searches and flow of studies.