ABSTRACT
At the end of the last century, Trendelenburg drew attention to the importance of
the incompetent great saphenous vein (GSV) in varicose vein disease. This is how
he described, in 1890, patients on whom the GSV ligation was indicated:
The cases of varicosities of the leg in the domain of the great saphenous
vein can be separated into two different groups. There are cases in which
the varicose deterioration is limited to the branches of the great saphe-
nous vein, while the trunk shows no changes of any sort, and, on the
other hand, there are those in which the trunk of the saphenous is like-
wise markedly dilated and varicose. Only the last-named group, the
cases of simultaneous varicose dilatation of the trunk and the branches
of the saphenous, will be considered in the following discourse (GSV
ligation, e.n.) (1).
