[Peculiarities of surgical treatment for true aneurysms of the popliteal artery].

A popliteal artery aneurysm is a rare disease and therefore it seems currently important to investigate peculiarities of surgical treatment of this pathology. Our study included a total of 60 patients (62 limbs) operated on for popliteal artery aneurysms with various complications. In order to assess the obtained findings the patients were subdivided into 3 groups depending on emergency of rendering surgical care. The spectrum of the operations performed varied from prosthetic repair of the popliteal artery from the posterior approach (graft length 7 cm) to femoroplantar bypass grafting (shunt length 100 cm). During revascularization we obligatorily performed ligation of the artery above and below the aneurysmatic sac. In some instances, should the need arise to resect the aneurysm (in symptoms of compression of the neuromuscular bundle), the posterior approach was used. The duration of the follow up period amounted to 3 years. We analysed both the immediate and remote results. According to the obtained findings, a zero mortality rate and 100% limb salvage rate were achieved in the group of elected surgical interventions, whereas in the group of urgent operations, the mortality rate amounted to 16%, with the disability rate reaching 32%. In patients with this disease, the operation should be performed before the onset of complications, since only such an approach will make it possible to avoid a great number of amputations and lethal outcomes.