Endarterectomy of the superficial femoral artery: a procedure worth reconsidering.

The preferred management of superficial femoral artery occlusive disease remains unresolved. The oldest technique for restoring vascular continuity, endarterectomy, has been largely replaced by bypass operations and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. We have continued to perform semi-closed endarterectomy in selected cases and review here a series of 231 consecutive cases in 197 patients treated during the last 10 years. The indication for the endarterectomy was disabling claudication in 186 operations (80%), rest pain in 21 (9%) and gangrene in 24 (11%). The superficial femoral artery abnormality consisted of 1-10 cm occlusion in 52 cases (23%), > 10 cm occlusion in 96 (41%), single stenosis in 21 (9%), multiple stenoses in 28 (12%) and it was unknown in 34 cases (15%). Postoperative mortality was 0.8% with a complication rate of 10%. Five year cumulative primary patency was 71% overall, 75% in patients with disabling claudication, 61% in those with rest pain and 46% in those with gangrene. Eight year patency was 55% (S.E. 5.4%). No difference in 5-year cumulative patency was seen between treatment for stenosis or occlusion (74 and 70%, respectively). The results of earlier studies and the current study raise the question of whether endarterectomy should be the first treatment of choice in obstructive lesions of the superficial femoral artery. The results of endarterectomy are better than can be achieved with angioplasty and compare well with the results of femoropopliteal bypass. Endarterectomy has specific advantages above femoro-popliteal bypass: the autologous saphenous vein is spared for future use and in case of failure of the endarterectomy, femoro-popliteal bypass remains possible.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)