Combined intraoperative iliac artery stents and femoro-popliteal bypass for multilevel atherosclerotic occlusive disease.

OBJECTIVE

To review our preliminary experience and evaluate our early results of a combined intraoperative iliac angioplasty and stenting with infrainguinal revascularization in multilevel atherosclerotic occlusive disease.

METHODS

From July 1999 to April 2000, intraoperative iliac angioplasty and stenting combined with simultaneous femoro-popliteal bypass were performed on 12 lower extremities of 10 patients suffering from multilevel atherosclerotic occlusive disease. There were 8 men and 2 women, average 72 years. The indications for procedures included disabling claudication in 3 and rest pain in 7 patients.

RESULTS

Eleven iliac angioplasty and stent procedures combined with simultaneous 9 femoro-popliteal by-pass and 3 femoro-femoral-popliteal bypass were performed in 12 limbs of 10 patients. Angioplasty and stent placement was technically successful in all patients. One contralateral femoral-popliteal bypass was failure after femoro-femoral-popliteal bypass. There were no additional instances of procedural or postoperative morbidity or mortality. Mean follow-up was 5 months (range 1 approximately 10 months). During the follow-up period, one femoro-infrapopliteal graft became occluded after 7 months and above-knee amputation was required. The cumulative primary patency rate of stented iliac arteries, femoro-femoral bypass grafts and femoro-popliteal bypass grafts were 100% (11/11), 100% (3/3) and 90.9% (10/11) in the follow-up period, respectively. The amputation rate was 8.3% (1/12).

CONCLUSIONS

Intraoperative iliac artery PTA and stent placement can be safely and effectively performed simultaneously with infrainguinal revascularization for multilevel atherosclerotic occlusive disease by skilled vascular surgeon, using a portable C arm fluoroscopy inthe operating room. Furthermore, iliac artery PTA and stenting was valuable adjunct to distal bypass either to improve inflow and outflow, or to reduce the extent of traditional surgical intervention, and also, any angioplasty and stenting-related complications can be immediately corrected as well.