Banerjee Subhash, Das Tony S, Brilakis Emmanouil S
VA North Texas Healthcare System and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75230, USA.
Cardiovasc Revasc Med. 2010 Apr-Jun;11(2):116-9. doi: 10.1016/j.carrev.2009.03.006.
Currently available techniques for the endovascular treatment of infrainguinal arterial chronic total occlusions (CTOs) require long procedure duration, large contrast volumes, complex subintimal dissection technique, and have low-intermediate success rates. Inability to remain intraluminal and/or reenter the true lumen after subintimal dissection remains the main reasons for procedural failure. We report for the first time a novel, simple, and reproducible technique that can significantly improve both the success and safety of endovascular intraluminal crossing of totally occluded peripheral arterial segments: the transcutaneous ultrasound-guided (TUG)-CTO technique. We used transcutaneous ultrasound guidance to cross long segments of superficial femoral artery CTO using a blunt-microdissection technique.
