Role of bypass, endarterectomy, extra-anatomic bypass and endovascular surgery in unilateral iliac occlusive lesions; a review of 1257 cases

Some 1257 patients who had undergone revascularization procedures for unilateral iliac occlusions were reviewed retrospectively. A total of 824 patients were operated upon using conventional operations, 165 patients had femorofemoral bypass and 268 were treated using endovascular surgery techniques. Revascularization was performed through an extraperitoneal approach by means of iliac thromboendarterectomy (560) or iliac femoral bypass (264) if there was a total occlusion of either the common or external iliac artery (group 1). A femorofemoral crossover bypass was inserted when the operative risk was considered to be high (group 2). Endovascular procedures (percutaneous transluminal angioplasty 234, laser percutaneous transluminal angioplasty 11, stenting 22, atherectomy one) were used in recent years to treat stenoses or occlusions of 3 cm or less (group 3). The indications for operation were severe claudication in 79.7% in group 1 and 92.6% in group 3, whereas in group 2 66.7% of patients presented with symptoms of more advanced ischaemia. The immediate patency rate was 97.0% after extraperitoneal reconstructive surgery, 96.9% in the femorofemoral group and 92.1% in patients having an endovascular procedure. The operative mortality rate was 0.7, 4.2 and 0.3% for groups 1-3, respectively. The 5-year patency rate, analysed by the life-table method, was 77.9% in group 1, 75.3% in group 2 and 73.7% in group 3 (P = n.s., log rank test) The different revascularization techniques were chosen on the basis of the type of disease present and the patient's general condition. All procedures appeared to be effective when correctly selected