Restenosis of the femoropopliteal artery after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty

• Main Authors: Vladka Salapura, Aleš Blinc
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovenian Medical Association 2014-05-01
• Series: Zdravniški Vestnik
• Subjects: restenosis; distal runoff; percuataneous transluminal angioplasty; peripheral arterial disease
• Online Access: http://vestnik.szd.si/index.php/ZdravVest/article/view/1188
• ISSN: 1318-0347; 1581-0224

<p><strong>Background</strong>: This paper addresses the incidence and possible causes of restenosis of the femoral artery after transluminal percutaneous angioplasty (PTA).</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: A brief review of the literature is presented as well as a summary of our results in 176 patients who had 200 revascularizations by PTA of the femoral artery. The patients were followed by vascular ultrasound for the occurrence of restenosis after 1, 6 and 12 months. The treated limbs were divided into a group with good infrapopliteal run-off and a group with compromised run-off.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: Our results showed that one month after PTA there were significantly more restenoses in patients with compromised run-off than in those with good infrapopliteal run-off (19/83 (23 %) vs. 10/83 (10 %), p &lt; 0.03). Calculations that took into account 24 limbs of patients with PTA performed on both limbs have shown the same results (22/95 limbs (23 %), vs. 10/105 (9 %), p &lt; 0.006).</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: Restenosis of the femoropopliteal artery after PTA is the major drawback of the percutaneous angioplasty. Owing to multiple causes that contribute to its development it still remains a challenging clinical problem. Compromised infra-popliteal run-off is an important cause that contributes to early restenosis of the femoral artery after PTA.</p>