PARIS – Below-the-knee plain balloon angioplasty is an effective strategy for limb-salvage in patients with critical limb ischemia who otherwise face the prospect of a major amputation, Ana P. Mollon, MD, said at the annual congress of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions.
Dr. Mollon of Posadas National Hospital in Buenos Aires, presented a retrospective series of 82 consecutive patients who underwent below-the-knee percutaneous angioplasty for critical limb ischemia with multivessel involvement. The amputation-free survival rate at a mean of 15.1 months of follow-up was 88%.
Bruce Jancin/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Ana P. Mollon
Sixty of the 82 patients had triple-artery involvement below the knee. The other 22 had two involved arteries. As is typical in patients with critical limb ischemia, comorbid conditions were common: Seventy-five patients had diabetes, 58 were hypertensive, and 48 were current smokers.
Of the 124 arteries treated by Dr. Mollon and coworkers, the posterior tibial artery was addressed in 41% of cases, the anterior tibial artery in 39%, and the peroneal artery in 18%. Two percent of patients received dilatation of plantar arch lesions.
Seventy percent of treated lesions were total occlusions, nearly half of which were more than 5 cm in length.
The treatment was plain balloon angioplasty in 78% of cases, drug-coated balloons in 12%, bare metal stenting in 7%, and drug-eluting stents in 3%. An antegrade approach was used in 95% of cases, and the remainder received a dual antegrade/retrograde approach.
Roughly 80% of patients were Rutherford category 5 or 6 before treatment. At 12 months post angioplasty, most patients were category 1 or 2, and about one-quarter were category 5 or 6.
Angioplasty was unsuccessful in restoring straight line flow in six patients.
All 10 patients who underwent a major amputation had triple-vessel involvement below the knee; in 9 of the 10, interventionalists were able to treat one of the three severely diseased arteries. Five of the 10 amputees had osteomyelitis.
Session chair Flavio Ribichini, MD, applauded Dr. Mollon and her Argentine colleagues for their predominant use of plain balloon angioplasty in this setting.
“I absolutely share your view on this. It’s the simplest and cheapest approach. The point is that you’re saving the foot now. It’s not that important what’s going to happen in 1 year. I don’t think it makes sense to use drug-coated balloons in this setting. It’s much more sensible to use a simple procedure and see how it goes,” said Dr. Ribichini, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Verona (Italy).
Dr. Mollon said that several years ago her group briefly turned to the use of drug-coated balloons for below-the-knee limb salvage, but they soon switched back to plain balloon angioplasty because they didn’t see any advantage in patient outcomes with the more elaborate technology.
Discussant Benjamin Honton, MD, of the Pasteur Clinic in Toulouse, France, said, “We, too, have been disappointed with the drug-coated balloon, especially in the posterior tibial artery.”
Dr. Mollon reported having no financial conflicts.