PERCUTANEOUS INTENTIONAL EXTRALUMINAL RECANALIZATION OF THE FEMOROPOPLITEAL ARTERY

Percutaneous intentional extraluminal recanalisation (PIER) of the fem oropopliteal artery is a new catheter technique to overcome long chron ic occlusions. This technique was applied to 40 long chronic occlusion s of the femoropopliteal segment. The mean length of the superficial f emoral artery (SFA) occlusions was 16.9 cm, the mean length of the pop liteal occlusions was 11.8 cm and the mean length of the femoropoplite al occlusions was 27.6 cm. Primary recanalisation success was 85%. Pat ency showed a significant correlation with poor initial angiographic r esult (p < 0.05). Life-time table analysis of the successful group dem onstrated a primary clinical patency of 59% at 1 and 2 years and a sec ondary clinical patency of 71% at 1 year and 65% at 2 years. There wer e no serious complications related to this technique. PIER technique i s simple and cost-effective, and shows a good initial success-rate wit h a promising 2 years clinical patency. This technique might be of imp ortance for patients with a critical lower leg ischaemia, when there a re contraindications for primary bypass surgery either from a technica l or a general point of view.