Predictors of medium-term patency in percutaneous endovascular therapy of femoro-popliteal lesions.

BACKGROUND The objective is to study the medium-term results of angioplasty and stenting in the femoro-popliteal sector in patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), and identify angiographic predictive factors of primary patency. PATIENTS AND METHODS Retrospective review of 98 patients with critical ischemia and angiographic lesions characterized as TASC A=13 (14%), B=38 (40%), C=24 (25%) or D=20 (21%). A total of 106 angioplasties and primary self-expanding stents (mean length of stent coverage of 19cm) were performed between January 2006 and January 2011. RESULTS The immediate results of patency, limb salvage and survival were 95, 96 and 96%, respectively. Primary patency at 1 and 2 years was 54 and 38%, respectively. Twenty-seven cases (25%) required endovascular iterative procedures, providing an assisted patency at 1 and 2 years of 72 and 60%, and a secondary patency of 80 and 67%. A lower primary patency was observed (log rank) when stent length was >20cm (P<.001), popliteal artery was invloved (P=.004), and in TASC C and D lesions (P=.04). In multivariate analysis (Cox), only stent length>20cm was an independent negative predictor for primary patency (HR=5.7, P<.001). The limb salvage at 1 and 2 years was 83 and 81%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Angioplasty with stent in the femoro-popliteal sector is a safe technique, but with significantly lower permeability results in injuries that require stent coverage of more than 20cm. In these cases, vein bypass surgery should be the procedure of choice.