Circumventing the difficulties induced by popliteal artery variation during tibial endovascular intervention

Aim The aim was to provide schematic assessments for the popliteal artery variation in order not to misinterpret the vessel of interest as collateral or occluded artery and consequently increase the efficiency of the territorial revascularization. Materials and methods This is a prospective observational study conducted over a period of 2 years including 452 patients who underwent popliteal and infrapopliteal endovascular angioplasty. Results A total of 437 (98.2%) patients had the usual pattern of popliteal artery branching, which usually correlates with the current published data. There were two (0.44%) patients with type Ib, two (0.44%) patients with type Ic, one (0.22%) patient with type IIa, one (0.22%) patient with type IIb, six (1.32%) patients with type IIIa pattern, and three (0.66%) patients with type IIIb. Conclusion With adequate preoperative assessment and applying the steps of our technique, the incidence to misinterpret the variation and consequently missing a chance for territorial revascularization become very low.