Autogenous veins and velour dacron in femoropopliteal arterial bypass

Sixty-five patients treated by femoropopliteal bypass in 1974 were surveyed; the mean follow-up time was 10.4 months. The one year cumulative patency rate for velour Dacron was 50 percent; this was less successful than were the results from a comparable group in which vein grafts were used (79 percent). These poor results were due principally to the high failure rate of velour Dacron in patients suffering from clinically severe ischemia. In these only one in four grafts remained patent. If a less than perfect arteriographic runoff was obtained, only one in three still functioned. These results occurred despite high intraoperative graft flows. It appears that velour Dacron may be acceptable in patients treated for claudication if no adequate vein is available. This prosthesis gives an unacceptably high failure rate in patients with severe ischemia.