Routine surgical management of brachial artery occlusion after cardiac catheterization.

From 1965 through 1980, 1,108 patients (1.5%) underwent thrombectomy and local arterial reconstruction because of brachial artery occlusion after a total of 73,750 cardiac catheterization procedures performed at the Cleveland Clinic. In a study group of 100 consecutive patients, 91 had simple arteriotomy revision and nine had segmental arterial resection with either axial reanastomosis or a saphenous vein interposition graft. Thirteen patients sustained early recurrent thrombosis after limited arteriotomy revisions, and 11 of these had successful reoperations. Ninety-eight patients were discharged from the hospital with normal distal pulses and no ischemic symptoms. Statistical analysis indicated that women were more likely than men to experience early recurrent thrombosis, and that late ischemic symptoms were most common among women and among those who required reoperations at the time of initial treatment.