Endovascular treatment of popliteal artery aneurysm

Abstract

Background: The most commonly occurring aneurysms in the periphery are those involving the popliteal artery. They comprise 70-80% of all such aneurysms. Conventional aneurysm repair consists of either opening the aneurysm sac and interposing a bypass graft or aneurysm ligation combined with bypass grafting. Endovascular treatment is an alternative to conventional repair. Objective: To evaluate use of stent graft in the endovascular treatment of popliteal artery aneurysms. Methods: We analyzed 17 male patients; of these, 11 were treated with endovascular stent graft, using Hemobahn and Viabahn stent grafts. Results: One patient had pseudoaneurysm in the immediate postoperative period. Among late complications, one patient had distal endoleak after 7 months, and there was stent graft occlusion in another patient. The remaining nine patients had satisfactory Doppler ultrasonography control at 20 months, which resulted in a primary patency of 90% over mean follow-up time of 27 months. Conclusion: Endovascular repair of a popliteal artery aneurysm is feasible and has some advantages compared with the open treatment, such as shorter hospital stay and recovery.