The painting of Mauro Bartolo: ‘Pietas for the saphenous veins’, too many saphenous ablations in the days of academic stripping

Prof. Bartolo, significant figure of Italian Angiology during the last decades of the XX century and founder of a Roman School of Angiology, was always sceptic about the surgical treatment of varicose veins. The modalities of stripping and its results were not a satisfactory surgical solution of the disease, from a clinical, aesthetic, social and finally economic point of view. Prof. Bartolo preferred conservative treatment in most cases, suggesting to give more space to minimally invasive treatments such as CHIVA, phlebectomy, sclerotherapy with the aim of achieving saphenous sparing and thus paving the way to the cultural foundation of modern phlebology. The current paper contains the translation and reprint of an Editorial of Prof. Bartolo about saphenous sparing treatments.