Transluminal angioplasty in a surgical setting. 150 cases

Since 1985, 150 transluminal angioplasty operations have been performed by surgical teams, in the operating theater, for treatment of atheromatous lesions of the lower extremities, either as a complement to or in replacement of direct surgical repair. 150 angioplasties were carried out on patients with severe stage II lesions (72%). There was one or several significant stenosis in 140 of cases, and one short segmental thrombosis in 10 cases (1 common iliac and 9 superficial femoral or popliteal). These angioplasties fell into the following categories: 60 iliac, 78 femoral-popliteal and 12 angioplastic repairs of stenosis to iliac or distal femoral surgery (anastomosis, grafting, endarterectomy...). Angioplasty was combined with revascularization or lumbar sympathectomy in 29% of cases. It was performed singly in most cases (71%) and carried out percutaneously (45%) or by limited superficial proximal femoral approach under local anesthesia (26%), either directly or when the percutaneous approach failed. Eight cases of thrombosis (5.3%) developed during the first month: 2 cases after iliac angioplasty and 6 cases after femoral-popliteal angioplasty. Five deaths occurred consecutively to myocardial infarction. At long term, 4 cases of iliac thrombosis and 3 cases of thrombosis complicating femoral-popliteal angioplasty were detected. The overall cumulative permeability rate was 89% at 30 months, and there was no significant difference at one year's time between iliac and femoral-popliteal angioplasty patients (90% and 86%, respectively). Data collected from digital angiographic monitoring allowed to detect 9 cases of residual or recurrent stenosis (2 iliac, 6 femoral-popliteal and 1 postoperative lesions). Two repeat femoral-popliteal angioplasties were successfully performed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)