[Catheter angiography in the aged patient: techniques and results (author's transl)]

We report on 133 suprarenal translumbar, 74 transfemoral and 1 transaxillary, together 208 catheter angiographies in patients aged over 70 years. The most frequent indication was arterial occlusive disease (74 per cent). For imaging of the abdominal aorta, the iliac and lower limb arteries and of the aortic arch we prefer the suprarenal translumbar catheter angiography in local anesthesia. Selective imaging of abdominal and supraaortic arteries is the main indication for the transfemoral catheter angiograhy. Side-effects and complications are limited to 2.4 per cent each. Puncture problems were present in this age group twice as often in the transfemoral approach (11%) than in the translumbar approach (6%). In 2 patients both angiographic methods failed.