Management of the Late Failure of Arterial Reconstruction of the Lower Extremities

Abstract

RECONSTRUCTIVE arterial surgery has now progressed to a time when the majority of patients with ischemic disease of the lower extremities, associated with either complete or partial large-vessel occlusion and manifest either by intermittent claudication alone or by threatened loss of the extremity, can be successfully treated. To a certain extent, early success may be unrelated to the method used, whether it is homograft artery, synthetic fabric cloth, thrombendarterectomy or saphenous-vein bypass autograft, but is due rather to the technical excellence with which the reconstruction is initially performed. On the other hand, the late behavior of these reconstructive procedures, in . . .