[Supra-genicular femoro-popliteal bypass: 5 years retrospectively analysis]

We report a retrospective study of patients submitted to supragenicular femoro-popliteal bypass surgery in our department between 1998 and 2002. A SPSS package was used for statistical analysis. Eighty bypasses were performed in 74 patients with a median follow up of 19,6 months [1-71 (+/- 22,5 months)]. Leriche-Fontaine stage IV chronic ischemia was the main indication for surgery accounting for 68,8% of cases, followed by stage III (25%) and stage IIb (6,2%). The most prevalent vascular conduit was PTFE (87,5%), with great saphenous vein and Dacron being used on 7,5 % and 5% of cases. Ten patients (12,5 %) later required major amputation and limb salvage at 12, 24 and 36 months was 91,6 %, 87,7 % and 82,8 %. The primary patency rates were 81,7 %, 78,9 % and 71 % at the end of the first, second and third year of follow up. Patient survival was 92,8 %, 92,8 % e 88,6 % at 12, 24 e 36 months of follow up. A large proportion of patients (61,7 %) required an accessory procedure. Our results might be considered acceptable in face of other published results, though care must be taken given the intrinsic limitations of this retrospective study.