The objective of the present work was to elucidate if ligation of the perforating veins during phlebectomy affects the outcome of surgery. This comparative prospective non-randomized study included 90 patients who underwent phlebectomy in the system of great saphenous vein. They were divided into two groups in one of which (study group) the patients were treated by trunk phlebectomy and miniphlebectomy. The treatment did not include localization of perforating veins and their dissection. The patients of the control group underwent vein stripping, miniphlebectomy, and dissection of compromised perforants. The study group included 34 patients of whom 10 (29.4%) presented with class C2 disease, 13 (38.2%) with class C3, 7 (20.6%) with class C4, and 4 (11.8%) with class C5 disease. A total of 92 and 160 perforants were revealed by ultrasound scanning in the patients of the study and control groups respectively. 70 (76.1%) and 132 (82.5%) of them were compromised. There were no statistically significant difference between the study and control groups in terms of the occurrence of different clinical classes of chronic venous disease (CVD) and percentage of compromised vessels. Thirty two patients of the study group and 52 controls were available for the follow-up observation (mean duration 9.0 and 8.5 months respectively). In the study group, 10 (31.2%) patients presented with class C0 disease, 10 (31.2%) with class C1, 2 (6.3%) with class C2, 6 (18.8%) with class C4, and 4 (12.5%) with class C5 disease. The respective figures in the control group were 13 (23.2%) patients with class C0 disease, 24 (46.2%) with class C1, 1 (1.9%) with class C2, 9 (17.3%) with class C4, and 6 (11.5%) with class C5 disease. No cases of class C3 venous oedema were documented in the patients of both groups. The groups were not significantly different in the occurrence of selected CVD classes following phlebectomy (p>0.05). The frequency of relapses of varicose veins were not different either (6.3% and 1.9% in the study and control groups respectively, p=0.6816). The results of this study indicate that dissection of the perforating veins does not improve the clinical outcome of phlebectomy.