Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. Results and surgical implications.

This retrospective study of 91 percutaneous transluminal angioplasties in 80 patients showed an overall patency rate by life-table analysis of 46 percent with a follow-up period of 36 months. Success rates were significantly reduced by predilatation ankle-brachial ratios less than 0.45, by diabetes, by pain at rest or necrosis, and somewhat, by older age. The overall success rate for iliac dilatation was significantly better (58 percent) than that in the femopopliteal segments (18 percent). Although percutaneous angioplasty was performed on many patients thought to be high surgical risks, the complication rate was low, and complications that required surgical intervention were rare (4 percent). Angioplasty was used as an adjunct to vascular surgery in several ways. An attempt to dilate a Dacron graft-femoral artery anastomosis was unsuccessful, and one of two dilatations distal to a femoropopliteal bypass was successful. However, the combination of an iliac angioplasty with outflow femoropopliteal or femorofemoral bypass produced a long-term patency rate of over 85 percent, significantly better than that achieved with iliac dilatation alone. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty is both an alternative and an adjunct which should be considered by vascular surgeons for their patients.