Subintimal angioplasty of native vessels in the management of occluded vascular grafts

Objectives: to assess the results of subintimal angioplasty of native vessels in the presence of an occluded vascular bypass graft. Design: retrospective case not review. Materials: twelve patients presenting with symptoms of lower limb ischaemia who had previously undergone infrainguinal bypass surgery and in whom the bypass graft had occluded. these patients were treated by attempting subintimal angioplasty of the occluded native vessels. Results: there were seven technically successful procedures but after a median follow up of four weeks, only one case had persistent patency of the previously occluded segment. Conclusions: although subintimal angioplasty of occluded native vessels in the presence of an occluded bypass graft appears attractive, the results are disappointing.