Endovascular treatment of infrapopliteal artery occlusion: clinical practice and thinking of present hot issues / 介入放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Critical lower limb ischemia(CLI) is a severe manifestation of arteriosclerosis obliterans of lower extremity,infrapopliteal artery occlusion is an important cause of CLI.Both limb salvage and life quality improvement are therapeutic targets for CLI.With the development of technology and equipment,endovascular treatment has become the main means for infrapopliteal arterial occlusive diseases.Because of the unique anatomic features of infrapopliteal artery,great therapeutic difficulty and high incidence of restenosis,a series of controversial issues have been emerged.The main controversial issues are as follows:(1) Which should be taken as first choice of treatment,endovascular therapy or traditional bypass surgery? (2) How to select target vessels in treating infrapopliteal artery occlusion? (3) How to select optimal access in performing endovascular treatment of infrapopliteal artery? (4) How to optimize the endovascular surgical method for infrapopliteal arterial occlusive disease? Based on the latest advance in evidence-based medicine and on the clinical treatment experience,this paper aims to make a detailed description concerning the above mentioned hot issues in clinical practice as well as in academic consideration about endovascular treatment of infrapopliteal arterial occlusive diseases.