Classification of venous malformations in children and implications for sclerotherapy.

Objective: The purpose of this work is to present a simple and descriptive classification system for venous malformations (VMs) that may serve as a basis for interventional therapy, and to test its usefulness in a sample of consecutively referred paediatric patients.

Materials And Methods: The classification system we developed includes four types: type I, isolated malformation without peripheral drainage; type II, malformation that drains into normal veins; type III, malformation that drains into dilated veins; and type IV, malformation that represents dysplastic venous ectasia. The system was prospectively tested using phlebography in a sample of 43 children and adolescents with VMs who were referred for treatment during a 10-month period.