Percutaneous transluminal atherectomy of the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries: Long-term results in 48 patients

Purpose: Evaluate retrospectively the long-term primary patency of directional atherectomy (DA) in the femoropopliteal arteries. Materials and Methods: DA was used alone in 59 patients (47%) or in combination with predilatation to allow passage of the device (43%) or after thrombolysis (10%) to treat 127 (93%) excentric atherosclerotic stenoses and nine (7%) occlusions of the femoropopliteal arteries. Forty-eight patients were followed by telephone interview, scheduled outpatient visits, color-flow Doppler evaluation, and angiography for 1-36 months (mean 16.9 months). Results: Technical success (reduction of the stenosis or occlusion to less than 30% luminal diameter) was achieved in 110 lesions (80.3%) during 48 procedures in 37 patients. Mean luminal diameter was increased 54% with a concomitant increase in mean ankle/brachial indices of 0.33. According to Kaplan-Meier survival curves, patency at 12 and 24 months was 88% and 75%, respectively. When patients who retained patency but developed restenosis were excluded, the probability of patency at 12, 24, and 36 months was 76%, 58%, and 32%, respectively. Major and minor complications occurred in 15 (21.4%) procedures each for a total complication rate of 42.8%. Conclusion: Based on our results, DA is an effective method for percutaneous treatment of atherosclerotic disease involving the femoropopliteal arteries. It has similar patency but a relatively high complication rate compared with PTA.