Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of infrarenal arteries in intermittent claudication.

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty was performed on 55 iliac and 31 femoropopliteal arteries in 71 patients with intermittent claudication (23 women, 48 men). The two-year patency rate was 80% after iliac and 41% after femoropopliteal angioplasty. In 17 femoropopliteal cases with lesions greater than or equal to 5 cm the 2-year patency rate was only 32%, but the corresponding figure for shorter lesions was 53%. Complicating haematoma appeared in 10% of the cases and the arterial state deteriorated in one patient. There was no distal embolization. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in intermittent claudication is indicated for all cases of occlusion or stenosis of the iliac artery and for occlusion or stenosis shorter than 5 cm of the superficial femoral or the popliteal artery.