Factors Affecting Long-Term Results of Above-Knee Femoropopliteal Bypass: A Single-Center Contemporary Study.

Introduction:The aim of this study was to assess whether individual patients’ or bypass characteristics may influence long-term results of prosthetic above-knee femoropopliteal bypasses in patients with claudication in today’s endovascular era.Methods:Seventy-one consecutivee Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene (e-PTFE) bypasses were considered. All patients presented a debilitating claudication. Patency of grafts was achieved by Kaplan-Meier method. The association between individual patients’ or graft characteristics and primary patency (PP) or secondary patency (SP) was assessed via Cox regression models.Results:An immediate technical success was achieved in all cases. No patient was lost during follow-up (8-90 months, median = 34 months). The median PP was 48 months. Occlusion occurred in 32 bypasses (45%). Eight (25%) of these were treated conservatively. Fifty-two bypasses (73%) were still patent at the end of follow-up, and 13 (25%) of these had been submitted to one or more surgical revisions. There ...