ILIAC AND FEMOROPOPLITEAL VASCULAR OCCLUSIVE DISEASE TREATED WITH FLEXIBLE TANTALUM STENTS

Two hundred patients were treated with tantalum stents, 2 in the aorto iliac bifurcation, 114 in the iliac, and 84 in the femoropopliteal art eries. The indications for stenting were technically unsuccessful perc utaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) due to arterial recoil, dissec tion (156 patients), or acute occlusions (15 patients). Long iliac art ery occlusions (29 patients) were indications for primary stenting. Li fe-table analysis revealed a 3-year patency rate of 95% for stented il iac arteries, and a 1-year patency rate of 80% for stented femoropopli teal arteries. Restenosis of the stented femoropoliteal lumen was part icularly frequent in stents placed for restenosis following prior PTA (7 of 12 patients), in stents placed into the distal superficial femor al and popliteal arteries (14 of 24 patients), and in stents positione d over a longer than 4-cm artery segment (9 of 16 patients). For the a ortic bifurcation and iliac arteries, arterial stenting has proved to be a valuable adjunct to PTA; for femoropopliteal arteries, stenting s hould be restricted to acute arterial occlusions or severe residual st enosis following PTA.