Incidence of stenoses in femorodistal bypass vein grafts in a multicentre study

Objectives: to establish the incidence of graft stenosis in a large populat ion of patients undergoing femorodistal bypass procedures and to investigat e the difference in incidence between individual surgical centres and other subpopulations. Patients and methods: a total of 277 patients with femorodistal bypasses un derwent duplex scanning of vein grafts for 12 months for the detection of g raft stenoses. A standard definition of a significant stenosis was used in all twenty participating centres. Results: overall stenosis rate was 27%. Stenosis were more common in compos ite vein grafts (43%) than in single segment vein grafts (25%) p=0.05. Sten oses were more common in female patients (38%) than males (22%) p=0.02. Ste nosis rates in individual centres entering more than 20 patients varied fro m 9% to 56%. In a multiple regression analysis only aspirin use, sex and ce ntre were significant factors predicting the likelihood of graft stenosis. Conclusion: female patients, those taking aspirin and patients with composi te vein grafts appear to be more at risk of graft stenosis, but this does n ot fully explain wide variations in the incidence of stenoses reported by i ndividual centres.