Abstract: PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of temperature on the stability of lauromacrogol foam for sclerotherapy. METHODS: Tessari method was used to generate foam. In preconditioning groups: two syringes were connected by a three-way stopcock, and one syringe was filled with lauromacrogol injection and the other with air. They were pre-cooled or pre-heated at different temperatures (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 and 65℃) for 10 minutes. Then the foam was obtained and the foam half-time (FHT) was tested in ambient temperature (T=25℃). In postconditioning groups: the foam was produced in ambient temperature (T=25℃), while FHT was tested at different temperatures (5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 and 65℃). The pearson correlation test was used to analyze the effect of temperature on foam stability. Independent-samples t test was used to compare the foam half-time of foam in postconditioning group and preconditioning group using SPSS 19.0 software package. RESULTS: There was a negative relation between the temperature and FHT in both preconditioning group and postconditioning group (preconditioning group: r=-0.984, P＜0.05; postconditioning group: r=-0.969, P＜0.05). There was significant difference of FHT between the two different temperature handling groups, except when the temperature was 25℃ (P>0.05). FHT in preconditioning group was longer than postconditioning group when the temperature was more than 25℃ (P＜0.05). By contrast, FHT in preconditioning group was shorter than in postconditioning group when the temperature was less than 25℃ (P＜0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Temperature was an important factor to affect the stability of sclerosing foam, and the impact was different before or after the foam being produced.

Key words: Lauromacrogol injection, Sclerosing foam, Stability, Temperature