Sclerotherapy

What to Expect

Sclerotherapy may be an inpatient or outpatient procedure. You can expect the following:

• Your child will be given a sedative or put to sleep and monitored closely by an anesthesiologist.
• The interventional radiologist will use live imaging (ultrasound or X-ray) to inject a special dye called contrast into the malformation. The special dye helps produce clearer images of the malformation.
• The interventional radiologist will precisely guide a needle into the malformation. The needle is used to inject a sclerosant and implant the metal coil.
• After the procedure, your child will be taken to a recovery room to wake up. A nurse will care for your child and watch for complications.
• In some cases, your child will be able to go home soon after the procedure. Treatment of malformations that are large and deep inside the body may require an overnight stay.
• The treatment will cause swelling and pain, which will last for a few days. Your child will be given pain medicine to minimize discomfort.
• Venous, arteriovenous and lymphatic malformations often come back, so your child may require several sclerotherapy or embolization treatments.

Like all medical procedures, sclerotherapy does have some risks. Sometimes the incision may bleed and in rare cases infection is possible. The sclerosant can cause numbness in the area that was treated, and this numbness may take a while to go away. Pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs) is a rare occurrence. An allergic reaction to the dye used to help the interventional radiologist see clearly inside the body is possible but rare.

Key Points to Remember

• Sclerotherapy is an interventional radiology procedure used to treat abnormal vessels in the circulatory system (arterial, venous and lymphatic).
• Your child will be sedated or under general anesthesia for this procedure.
• Malformations often return, so your child may need sclerotherapy or embolization again in the future.