Percutaneous transluminal atherectomy of the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries: long-term results in 48 patients.

Purpose: Evaluate retrospectively the long-term primary patency of directional atherectomy (DA) in the femoropopliteal arteries.

Materials And Methods: DA was used alone in 59 patients (47%) or in combination with predilatation to allow passage of the device (43%) or after thrombolysis (10%) to treat 127 (93%) excentric atherosclerotic stenoses and nine (7%) occlusions of the femoropopliteal arteries. Forty-eight patients were followed by telephone interview, scheduled outpatient visits, color-flow Doppler evaluation, and angiography for 1-36 months (mean 16.