[Iliac artery and aortic thromboses after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty].

Transluminal angioplasty of iliac arteries is a safe and increasingly used alternative to vascular surgery. Since, especially in this region, life-threatening complications may occur at dilatation site, indication for iliac angioplasty should be examined critically, having due regard to cardiopulmonary disease and prior abdominal procedures which may hamper emergency surgery if required. The technically more difficult catheterisation by contralateral femoral approach involves a higher risk of disseminated cholesterol embolisation due to traumatised and dislodged atheromatous plaques. The report concerns three cases with rapid aortoiliac thrombosis and widespread histologically confirmed cholesterol embolisation in connection with iliac angioplasty.