Published in:
01-02-2006 | Vascular-Interventional
Percutaneous laser-assisted recanalization of long chronic iliac artery occlusions: primary and mid-term results
Authors:
Jörn O. Balzer, Verena Gastinger, Axel Thalhammer, Ralf G. Ritter, Edelgard Lindhoff-Last, Thomas Schmitz-Rixen, Thomas J. Vogl
Published in:
European Radiology
|
Issue 2/2006
Login to get access
Abstract
We report the primary and mid-term outcome of patients with long chronic iliac artery occlusions after percutaneous excimer-laser-assisted interventional recanalization. Between 2000 and 2001, 43 patients with 46 chronic occlusions of either the common iliac artery (n=27), the external iliac artery ( n=13) or both (n=3) underwent laser-assisted percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and implantation of stents. The average length of the occlusion was 57.1±26 mm. After laser-assisted angioplasty and implantation of a total of 60 stents, the patients were followed up for up to 4 years. Patency rates were analyzed by ankle–brachial index (ABI) measurement and duplex ultrasound. The primary technical success rate was 95.3%, with a major complication rate of 6.9%. Clinical improvement as categorized by the Rutherford guidelines could be observed in 97.6% of cases. The ABI of all patients improved from an average of 0.46±0.08 before intervention to 0.97±0.13 at the end of the follow-up period. The overall primary patency rate was 86.1%. Four reinterventions were successful (secondary patency rate 95.4%). The mid-term results of the percutaneous recanalization of iliac artery occlusions with primary and secondary patency rates of 86.1 and 95.4% are similar to those of the treatment of short stenoses.