Aorto-iliac reconstructions for intermittent claudication

Over a 12-year period, 290 aortofemoral reconstructions were performed for intermittent claudication involving 449 legs in 262 patients. The accumulative patency rate in surviving patients was 79 per cent at 5 years. The patency rate was significantly better in patients who stopped smoking after operation, and in men compared with women. Dacron grafts were significantly more successful than endarterectomy in men. If there was no associated superficial femoral artery occlusion, endarterectomy and Dacron bypass grafts were equally successful, but Dacron bypass grafts were significantly superior to endarterectomy if the superficial femoral artery was severely stenosed or occluded. The success rates for improving the patients' intermittent claudication were 90 per cent at 3 months and 72 per cent at 3 years. The success rate at 3 years was 80 per cent if the superficial femoral artery was patent but only 62 per cent if the superficial femoral artery was severely stenosed or occluded. Mortality and morbidity rates fell markedly in the last 6 years of the study.