Safety Distance for Endovenous Laser Ablation of the Great Saphenous Vein

Chronic venous disease is one of the most common diseases in the western world and worldwide with a prevalence of 83,6%. It is a chronic progressive disease, which causes a significant burden on health systems, treatment and care of these patients. Recurrence of varicose veins after successful treatment remains a problem and has been reported in up to 30% of patients after endovenous laser ablation (EVLA), which is the recommended treatment of choice for incompetence of the truncal veins. The aim of this project is to investigate a variation of the EVLA, which has the potential to reduce the recurrence rate in the long-term. If this assumption is true, the investigators expect reduction of costs in the health system and improved quality of life for individual patients.The primary objective of the project is the evaluation of long-term anatomical effectiveness of EVLA treatment with and without keeping a distance to sapheno-femoral junction (SFJ), defined as complete obliteration of the great saphenous vein (GSV) or absence of an open saphenous stump at the SFJ after 3 years. Secondary objectives are: 1. . Evaluation of the effectiveness of EVLA treatment with and without keeping a distance to SFJ, measured as duplex sonographic reflux (≥ 0,5 sec) in the GSV or any other axial vein at the SFJ after 1 year and 3 years. 2. . Evaluation of the anatomical effectiveness of EVLA treatment with and without keeping a distance to SFJ, measured as the length of the open saphenous stump (in centimeters) after 1 year and 3 years. 3. . Assessment of quality of life 3 months, 1 year and 3 years after EVLA. 4. . Evaluation of the clinical efficacy and tolerability measured as a clinical score at 3 months, 1 year and 3 years after EVLA. 5. . Safety assessment measured as the number of thromboembolic events 1 week and 3 months after EVLA.This project is planned as a prospective randomized parallel group double-blind study. For the assessment of efficacy and safety parameters, clini