[Lumbar sympathectomy for occlusion of thesuperficial femoral artery (author's transl)].

Lumbar sympathectomy is a good procedure for occlusion of the superficial femoral artery provided collateral circulation be stimulated by walking, and of course provided this circulation be intact. This requires an aortography which is necessary to arrive at a good prognosis. Lumbar sympathectomy without a previous aortogram is meaningless: it would lead to the ignorance of short stenoses of the internal iliac or deep femoral arteries and misinterpretation of the efficiency of lumbar sympathectomy.