Adjunctive iliac stents reduce the risk of stent-graft limb occlusion following endovascular aneurysm repair with the Zenith stent-graft.

Purpose: To determine whether the introduction of a policy of adjunctive stent insertion based on preoperative CT assessment or completion angiography reduced the incidence of limb occlusion after stent-graft implantation for endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR).

Methods: A tertiary referral unit's endovascular database was retrospectively interrogated to compare the incidence of endograft limb occlusion in Zenith grafts following the introduction of a policy of selective adjunctive stent insertion. Group A included 288 limbs at risk in 146 patients (134 men; mean age 74+/-8 years) treated prior to August 2005 in whom adjunctive stents were inserted on an ad hoc basis only.