Femoral artery flow in deep vein thrombosis: hemodynamics of slow versus acute femoral vein occlusion.

There are many reports of reduced flow in the femoral artery following acute occlusion of the femoral vein. Poorer results might also be expected in arterial reconstructive surgery for obliterative vascular disease, in the event of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of the limb. It is likely that patients develop DVT by a slow process that is totally different from experimental acute occlusion of the femoral vein, which leads to reduction of flow in the femoral artery. To test this hypothesis, a model with slow and gradual femoral vein occlusion was used. The results of this study showed that there was only 13.5% reduction in femoral artery flow during a four-hour gradual occlusion of the femoral vein. This excludes the possibility that in the presence of gradually occurring processes such as DVT, there is a hemodynamic basis for reduced flow through the femoral artery or through a bypass.