SPECIAL ARTICLE  SFA MANAGEMENT 

The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2019 October;60(5):567-71

DOI: 10.23736/S0021-9509.19.11040-3

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Tips and tricks to cross chronic total occlusions in the superficial femoral artery

Theodosios BISDAS ¹ ✉, Nikolaos PATELIS ¹, Konstantinos STAVROULAKIS ²

¹ Clinic of Advanced Endovascular Services, Athens Medical Center, Athens, Greece; ² Clinic of Vascular Surgery, St. Franziskus Hospital, Münster, Germany

Chronic total occlusion (CTO) is a common finding during endovascular treatment of peripheral arterial disease. The treatment of CTOs is a challenging task, which requires good knowledge of the devices and their specific characteristics and skills to different techniques for crossing. As a matter of fact, any dedicated center treating patients with peripheral arterial disease requires an adequate consignment stock regarding wires, catheters, balloons and some specific devices for challenging anatomic scenarios. Herein, the most important steps of a successful recanalization of a femoropopliteal CTO are summarized together with a number of tips regarding utilization of different techniques and specific devices.

KEY WORDS: Femoral artery; Endovascular procedures; Coronary occlusion