For patients with a blocked superficial femoral artery, surgical bypass was linked to more re-interventions than angioplasty and stenting, a single-center study showed, but bypass surgeons had to contend with larger lesions.
In the first two years after the procedures, 54 percent of patients who underwent surgery, compared with 31 percent of those who received endovascular treatment, required re-intervention (P=0.02), according to Mahmoud Malas, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and colleagues.
However, bypass was used primarily in more extensive lesions that had a greater risk of patency failure, they reported online in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
“This emphasizes that one must consider the patient population undergoing intervention when comparing revascularization procedures. A prospective randomized trial is needed to determine the overall better treatment option,” Malas and colleagues wrote, noting that such a trial is ongoing at their center.
