Transluminal angioplasty in a community hospital: a surgeon's viewpoint

We have found transluminal angioplasty to be a safe and effective procedure for the relief of arterial obstruction. In a community hospital over a 20-month period, we did 100 consecutive dilatation procedures, many involving multiple dilatations, with no morbidity or mortality. Iliac lesions were dilated successfully (74/80) more often than femoral lesions (15/20). Several patients had relief of impotence. Transluminal angioplasty was used successfully as an adjunct to operation both as staged and combined procedures to dilate the donor artery for a femoral-femoral bypass graft or femoral-popliteal graft, or to dilate the outflow of a new or existing graft.