[Salvage of balloon expanded vascular endoprostheses (stents)]

Since 1987 patients have been treated with tantalum stents at our hospital (iliac arteries n:40, femoro/popliteal arterie n:35). Before expanding indication for stent implantation to other more difficult areas and vessel segments, we need to guarantee that a misplaced or not sufficient expanded or only temporary used stent, perhaps after dissections, could be rescued out of the vessel without damage of the vessel wall. Therefore we used cadaveric arteries and a special "retrivel set" To rescue the expanded stent through the introducer sheet without wessel wall damage was possible in all cases (iliac arteries n:5, femoral arteries n:5). In a second attempt, we showed, that even a TEA was possible, using a ringstripper which cut a typical cylinder of the atheriosclerotic vessel wall overpassing and including the stent. In 7 out of ten cases (cadaveric iliac arteries) the retrograde ringstripping-procedure was successful. The other 3 cases required an incision of the vessel with local thrombendarteriectomia. Insofar a stent implantation should not be considered as a contraindication for this surgica treatment else in later history.