This study was a retrospective analysis of patients with CLI who underwent infrapopliteal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). The main goal was to evaluate clinical and morphological factors that influence the clinical outcome of PTA in long-term follow-up. A total of 1,445 PTA procedures were performed in 1,268 patients. Main indications for PTA included gangrene, nonhealing ulcers, or rest pain. The mean number of treated arteries was 1.77 artery/limb, and the majority of lesions were type TASC D. The technical success rate of PTA was 89% of intended-to-treat arteries. The main criterion of clinical success was functional limb salvage (LS). One-year follow-up involved 1,069 limbs. Primary and secondary 1-year LS rates were 76.1 and 84.4%, respectively. The effect of clinical and morphological parameters on the 1-year LS was that the only associated disease with an adverse effect on LS rate was DM combined with dialysis. Regarding limb preprocedural status, gangrene was clearly a negative predictor. The most important factor affecting LS was the number of patent arteries post-PTA: patients with 0, 1, 2, and 3 patent arteries had 1-year primary LS rates of 56.4, 73.1, 80.4, and 83%, respectively. Long-term follow-up of LS rates demonstrated secondary LS rates of 84.4, 78.8, and 73.3% at 1, 5, and 10 years. Every effort should be made to perform PTA for as many arteries as possible, even if TASC D type, to improve clinical outcome. Our study shows that repeat PTA is capable of keeping the long-term LS rate close to 75%.

No abstract

The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate whether stent placement in infrapopliteal arteries is helpful in failed percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Infrapopliteal PTA was performed in 70 arteries of 66 patients with chronic critical lower limb ischemia. The group comprised 55 males and 11 females, with an average age of 63.4 (range, 42-82) years. Diabetes mellitus was present in 92.4% of patients. Only the palpable anterior tibial and posterior tibial arteries were evaluated. Stents (Xpert stent; Abbot Vascular, Redwood City, CA, USA) were placed in 16 arteries where PTA was not successful (the failure was defined as residual stenosis >30% after PTA). In 54 arteries simple PTA was performed and was technically successful. Twenty-four nondilated arteries with no significant stenosis served as a comparison group. The 12-month patency rate was evaluated according to a combination of palpation and Doppler ultrasound. In all cases stent placement restored the flow in the artery immediately after unsuccessful PTA. Twelve-month follow-up showed a patency rate of 82% in the PTA group, 78% in the stent group, and 69% in the comparison group. We conclude that stent placement in the case of unsuccessful infrapopliteal PTA changed technical failure to success and restored flow in the dilated artery. At 12-month follow-up the patency rate of infrapopliteal arteries stented for PTA failure did not differ significantly either from nonstented arteries with an optimal PTA result or from a comparison group of nonintervened arteries.