Study Shows Acceptable Long-Term Patency of SFA Stents

November 16, 2012—At the VEITH Symposium in New York City, Giovanni Torsello, MD, presented data showing that more than half of patients treated for claudication or critical limb ischemia (CLI) with stenting of the superficial femoral artery (SFA) retained primary patency at 5 years. Dr. Torsello is the Chief of the Department of Vascular Surgery at St. Franziskus-Hospital in Münster, Germany. 

According to the announcement from the VEITH Symposium, the results were derived from a retrospective review of 517 patients who reached follow-up of at least 2 years. Overall, 827 stents were implanted in 543 limbs. Primary patency rates for the 517 patients were 86%, 75%, and 61% at 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively. Primary patency was defined as the absence of hemodynamically significant stenosis on duplex ultrasound imaging (systolic velocity ratio < 2.4) at the target lesion and without target lesion revascularization. There were no significant differences between TASC A/B and TASC C/D lesions groups or between bare-metal stents and drug-eluting stents.

In the study, 77.9% of patients were treated for claudication, and the remaining patients were treated for CLI. TASC II C or D lesions were seen in 35.5% of patients based on angiographic imaging. Complete occlusion was seen in 42.7%, and 13.8% had popliteal involvement. The average lesion length was 154.2 ± 94 mm. After a mean follow-up of 93.4 ± 1.6 months, 18.8% of patients had died. The mean ankle-brachial index increased from 0.67 ± 0.17 to 0.98 ± 1.7 at follow-up (P < .001). Target lesion revascularization was performed in 27.8% of the limbs treated. In addition, secondary patency rates were 95%, 90%, and 76% at 1, 3, and 5 years. Eight patients (1.5%) underwent major amputation, reported Dr. Torsello.

In the VEITH press release, Dr. Torsello commented, “Stenting of the SFA is associated with an acceptable success rate, even after 5 years and in patients with long SFA lesions.”