Hip pain caused by buttock claudication. Relief of symptoms by transluminal angioplasty.

Two patients with severe hip pain proved to have buttock claudication resulting from isolated stenosis of the hypogastric artery. This diagnosis may be elusive if distal pulses are palpable, directing the clinician's suspicion away from vascular pathology. Diagnosis requires angiography. The patients were successfully treated by transluminal angioplasty. Angioplasty is the initial treatment of choice for these patients because the hypogastric artery is usually readily and safely accessible from either the femoral or axillary artery.