Resurrection of Chronically Occluded Prosthetic Bypass Grafts in a Single Stage with Suction Thrombectomy and Intervention

Abstract Background Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) continues to be a vexing problem despite the advent of endovascular techniques augmenting traditional open repair. At our institution we have found there is a growing number of patients with PAOD that are vein-challenged and have undergone prosthetic bypass previously for infrainguinal arterial reconstruction. When occluded, these grafts have been abandoned for a new bypass strategy or amputation. We present a novel technique of re-establishing flow through chronically occluded prosthetic bypass grafts. Method A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database compiled at two institutions between 2016 and 2019 was performed. Six patients had previous prosthetic bypass grafts with four patients having femoral to popliteal grafts, one patient with a femoral to femoral graft, and one with a femoral to posterior tibial bypass graft. All patients had an attempted single stage intervention to clear chronically occluded grafts. Results A total of 6 patients were included in the study. Indications for intervention were chronic, critical limb ischemia with tissue loss (3), severe claudication (2), and acute on chronic limb ischemia (1). Average time from bypass to suction thrombectomy was 29 months (6-60 months). Mean patency duration is 13 months (1-28 months). Adjunctive procedures include overnight lysis to improve outflow in 1 patient (16.6%), drug coated balloon angioplasty (83.3%) or stents (83.3%). There were no embolic complications during these procedures. All (2) wounds healed and all are maintained on full dose anticoagulation and/or antiplatelet therapy. Conclusion Often, the timing of bypass graft occlusion is unknown and the risk of embolism with lysis for chronically occluded bypass graft is concerning with traditional peripheral intervention techniques. We report a new and unique minimally-invasive approach to resurrect chronically occluded prosthetic bypass grafts often successful in just one stage. This tool offers an alternative technique for limb salvage in complex patients and as use increases, requires further interrogation.