Percutaneous treatment of rare latrogenic arteriovenous fistulas of the lower limbs.

Postoperative iliac and popliteal arteriovenous fistulas are extremely rare. This article describes the percutaneous endovascular treatment of iatrogenically induced arteriovenous fistula in two patients with simultaneous use of intravascular ultrasound. In a 61-year-old woman, a fistula between popliteal artery and vein, inadvertently created during implantation of a prosthetic knee joint, was treated with a novel polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) stent graft. A 48-year-old man underwent endovascular treatment of a large fistula between the right common iliac artery and the left common iliac vein, inadvertently induced during surgery on an intervertebral disc. Congestive heart failure induced by the arteriovenous communication was reduced rapidly. Our results indicate that percutaneous treatment in conjunction with intravascular ultrasound is a useful therapeutic option for vascular lesions. It is less invasive than open vascular reconstruction and has a comparably high success rate.