Abstract
BACKGROUND: Superficial femoral angioplasty (percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, PTA) is a widely performed therapeutic modality used throughout the UK in the treatment of intermittent claudication. However, there is still concern over its efficacy in the management of atherosclerotic occlusive disease. Long-term outcome was examined in patients undergoing PTA for short (less than 10 cm) occlusions or stenoses. METHODS: Data were collected prospectively for 413 patients undergoing femoral angioplasty and entered into a database for long-term outcome analysis. Patients were seen at 3, 6 and 12 months and at yearly intervals. Doppler ultrasonography and clinical assessment were performed in all patients and duplex imaging was carried out in those in whom there was doubt about patency. Finally, surviving patients were simply questioned as to whether they felt the original PTA to have been worthwhile. RESULTS: Mean follow-up time was 7 (range 2-11) years. Excluding an initial technical failure rate of 8 per cent, cumulative primary patency at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years was 64, 55, 36, 21 and 14 per cent respectively. Moreover, clinical assessment revealed improvement of the presenting complaint in only 40, 29, 17, 9 and 7 per cent respectively. CONCLUSION: Superficial femoral PTA does not appear to be effective in the management of intermittent claudication in most patients.
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