[Consecutive deep femoro-femoral shunting in Leriche's syndrome].

Reconstructive operations were carried out in the clinic on 437 patients with Leriche's syndrome in the recent 8 years. In 25 of them successive shunting of the vessels of the femoro-popliteal segment became necessary later because of inadequacy of the blood flow immediately after the first operation (15 patients) or consequent thrombosis of the femoral artery (10 patients). Trophic changes in the distal parts of the extremity, pain at rest or intermittent claudication occurring after 20-25 minutes of walking were the indications for resorting to successive shunting in the femoro-popliteal segment despite the maintained functioning of the shunt in the aortoiliac position. The deep femoral artery was used as the donor vessel in 12 operations among the 25 successive operations on patients with the Leriche's syndrome. It is noted that with the use of this vessel the successive operation becomes simpler technically and the length of the shunt can be reduced. Adequate restoration of blood flow in the extremity was attained in all patients after successive shunting of vessels in the femoral segment with the use of the deep femoral artery, and persisted for 6 to 12 months.