[Distal arteritis of the legs: endovascular treatment]

Femoro-tibial bypasses are not always feasible in patients presenting with "critical" chronic ischemia. The results of endovascular therapies carried out over a 2-year period are analyzed. Twenty-three patients with critical ischemia (rest pain 13%, gangrene 87%) had 25 procedures on 29 leg arteries: percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in 17 arteries, rotational atherectomy in 10 arteries, laser recanalization (1 artery), directional atherectomy (1 artery). The hospital mortality rate was 4.3%. The cumulative patency and limb salvage rates were respectively 51% and 77% at 6 months, 34% and 71% at 12 months. Candidates for tibial-peroneal endovascular techniques should have a threatened limb, as long as the consequences of failed procedures on patients presenting with claudication can be disastrous, and as long as mid-term patency rates reported in the literature are not fair enough. In localized stenosis or short occlusions with adequate runoff, endovascular techniques are a good alternative to femorotibial bypasses for limb salvage. In diffuse lesions with no possibility of bypass, endovascular techniques can facilitate limb salvage, even if the mid-term arterial patency rate is poor. When conventional therapies cannot face critical ischemia, endovascular therapies can provide a fair limb salvage rate.