Emergency endovascular treatment of popliteal aneurysms

Popliteal artery aneurysm (PAA), despite being rare, is the most common peripheral aneurysm. It can present as acute thrombosis and occlusion of the aneurysmal segment, and distal embolization, causing either chronic or acute limb ischemia. It has traditionally been treated with open surgical reconstruction. Endovascular repair of PAAs has recently been applied electively with a favourable early and mid-term outcome; however there is a lack of reports on the endovascular treatment of PAAs presenting with acute complications. This report describes the treatment of a thrombosed PAA in a 58 year old male using an endovascular stent-graft and also provides a systematic review of the literature on the emergency endovascular treatment of PAAs.