Background: Endovascular techniques have undergone major advances with regard to the treatment of infrainguinal arterial occlusive disease, mainly as a result of development of new devices and self-expanding nitinol stents. Objective: To evaluate the results and determinant factors of femoropopliteal angioplasty in patients with critical lower limb ischemia. Methods: During the study, 114 patients were submitted to angioplasty or stenting and followed during an average of 12 months. Mean age was 66 years, and 53% were female; 23.7% presented disabling claudication, 8.8% ischemic rest pain and 67.5% tissue loss. Lesions were classified as A (53%), B (34%), C (5%) and D (9%) according to the TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus II. Results: Angiographic run-off analysis showed an average of 1.4±1.0 patent infrapopliteal artery. Initial success rate was 97%. At 1, 6, 12 and 24 months of the follow-up period, primary patencies of 94, 78, 48 and 31%, and assisted primary patencies of 94, 84, 73 and 61% were achieved (p = 0.005). Poor run-off and diabetes mellitus were directly associated with lower primary patency rates (p = 0.01), while angiographic severity of the lesions did not influence results. Limb salvage rates calculated at 6, 12 and 24 months were 95, 90 and 90%, respectively. Conclusions: Lesion length was not a determinant factor of lower success rates for angioplasty or stenting, which may suggest that indications for endovascular treatment can be extended to patients with TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus II C/D lesions.
Femoral artery; popliteal artery; balloon angioplasty; arteriosclerosis obliterans
