Percutaneous atherectomy with the Kensey catheter: early and midterm results in femoropopliteal occlusions unsuitable for conventional angioplasty.

Forty-six femoropopliteal occlusions in 44 patients (aged 45-95 years) were recanalized with the percutaneous rotating tip atherectomy catheter completed by balloon dilatation. Thirty-one patients had tight intermittent claudication of the lower limbs, five had resting pain and 10 had skin disorders. The length of the occlusion ranged from 2 to 24 cm.

[Peripheral arterial recanalization using a Kensey catheter].

Between June 6 1988 and September 30 1989, 46 superficial femoral obliterations in 44 patients were treated by rotary atherectomy, completed by conventional dilatation in 40 patients. The 44 patients (27 males and 17 females), mean age over 66.5 years (45 to 90), presented symptomatic superficial femoral obliterations (17 tight stage, two occlusions, 5 stage III, and 10 stage IV occlusions), with mean length of 9.

[Acute fatal non-occlusive intestinal ischemia during treatment with a cardiotonic glucoside].

After presenting the case of a 70 year old woman who presented a massive mesenteric infarction as a result of non-occlusive intestinal ischaemia ( NOII ), the authors review the principal features of this particular form of intestinal ischaemia. This condition is seen principally in elderly people with a syndrome of low cardiac output, resulting in marked mesenteric vasoconstriction. It is a complication of either severe decompensated heart disease treated with digitaloids or to a state of hypovolaemic or septic shock.