Funktionsangiographie der kniegelenknahen Arterien: Konsequenzen für die Stentimplantation?

Abstract

Angiographic studies of the arteries adjoining the knee in 25 patients show extensive kinking and stenoses of the popliteal artery and less frequently of the distal femoral artery during flexion of the knee joint. This is due to the loss of elasticity with increasing age forcing the vessel into a tortuous course during shortening of the pathway of the popliteal artery with knee flexion. Independent of the principle of the different stents available they probably will not increase the contractility of the stented vessel in the longitudinal axis. It is to expect that after implantation of stents into the popliteal artery kinking will occur predominantly in the original segments of the vessel and at the transitions to the stented segments leading to intimal damage by shear forces thus propagating local progress of atherosclerosis.