Congenital vascular malformations: general treatment principles.

The era where surgical excision alone was the sole treatment of venous malformation (VM) is now over. A multidisciplinary approach that utilizes both traditional surgical therapy and endovascular therapy is now the standard of care. Endovascular therapy utilizing primarily both embolization therapy and sclerotherapy is the treatment of choice for surgically 'inaccessible' VM lesions. Surgical therapy of VM lesions has been shown to be more effective when combined with supplemental endovascular therapy.