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Background: Studies comparing alternative autologous vein grafts (AAVGs) to single-segment great saphenous vein (ssGSV) grafts report mixed results. The status of AAVG as first choice when ssGSV is unavailable is not unequivocal based on current evidence. Our study compares results between AAVG and ssGSV in lower extremity bypass (LEB) surgery., Methods: A single-center retrospective cohort study involving all patients who underwent infrainguinal bypass using AAVG (arm veins, spliced arm, or arm-leg veins) and ssGSV from April 2019 to June 2023. Study endpoints were patency rates and amputation-free survival (AFS)., Results: There were 65 (20.8%) patients in the AAVG group, 247 (79.2%) in the ssGSV group. Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) was the most frequent indication for surgery (AAVG 54/65, 83.1% vs. ssGSV 170/247, 68.8%), followed by acute limb ischemia (ALI) (AAVG 6/65, 9.2% vs. ssGSV 28/247, 11.3%); claudicants were presented only in the ssGSV group (AAVG 0/65, 0% vs. ssGSV 44/247, 17.8%). More redo operations occurred in AAVG than in the ssGSV group (23/65, 35.4% vs. 26/247, 10.5%; P < 0.001). Spliced vein grafts represented 87.7% (57/65) of AAVG bypasses. The median follow-up was 20.1 months for the AAVG group and 27.5 for the ssGSV group. Three-year patency rates between AAVG versus ssGSV: primary patency (PP) 59.3% ± 8.2% versus 69.2% ± 3.8%, P = 0.113; primary assisted patency (PAP) 75.2% ± 7.1% versus 73.5% ± 3.4%, P = 0.790; secondary patency (SP) 74.9% ± 7.1% versus 74.4% ± 3.4%, P = 0.667; did not display significant difference between groups nor did 3-year AFS in CLTI patients; 70.7% ± 7.9% versus 54.6% ± 4.8%; P = 0.273., Conclusion: AAVGs should be the first conduit choice when ssGSV is unavailable. Mid-term patency rates do not differ from those of ssGSV grafts despite higher reintervention rate., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Alternative autologous veins can be used as a conduit when adequate great saphenous vein is unavailable. We analyzed the results of our infrainguinal bypasses after adopting upper extremity veins in our practice., Methods: This is a single-center observational study involving all patients whose infrainguinal bypass involved the use of upper extremity veins between April 2019, when we began using arm veins, and February 2023., Results: During the study period, 49 bypasses were done in 48 patients; mean age 68.1 ± 9.8; men 32 (66.7%); body mass index 28.0 ± 4.8; indications for surgery: chronic limb threatening ischemia 41 (83.7%); acute limb ischemia 3 (6.1%); complications of previous prosthetic 3 (6.1%), or autologous 2 (4.1%) bypass grafts. Vein splicing was used in 43 (87.8%) bypasses with 3-segment grafts being the most common (26; 53.1%). There were 24 (49.0%) femorotibial, 11 (22.4%) femoropopliteal, 9 (18.4%) femoropedal, and 5 (10.2%) extension jump bypass procedures. Eighteen (36.7%) operations were redo surgeries. Twenty-one (42.9%) bypasses were formed using only arm veins. The median follow-up was 12.9 months (4.5-24.2). Two bypasses occluded during the first 30 postoperative days (2/49; 4.1%). Overall 30-day, 1-year, and 2-year primary patency rates were 93.7% ± 3.5%, 84.8% ± 5.9%, and 80.6% ± 6.9%, and secondary patency (SP) rates were 95.8% ± 2.9%, 89.2% ± 5.3%, and 89.2% ± 5.3%. One-segment grafts had better patencies than 2-, 3-, and 4-segment grafts (1-year SP 100% ± 0% vs 87.6% ± 6.0%). Two-year amputation-free survival was 86.8% ± 6.5%; 2-year overall survival was 88.2% ± 6.6%., Conclusions: Integration of arm vein grafts in infrainguinal bypass practice can be done safely with low incidences of perioperative graft failure. One-segment grafts had better patencies than spliced vein grafts. The achieved early patency and amputation-free survival rates strongly encourage their use. In the absence of a single-segment great saphenous vein, upper extremity vein grafts should be the preferred conduit choice., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Biomechanical rupture risk assessment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) requires information about failure properties of aneurysmal tissue. There are large differences between reported values. Among others, studies vary in using either axially or circumferentially oriented samples. This study investigates the effect of sample orientation on failure properties., Methods: Aneurysmal tissues from 45 patients (11 females) were harvested during open AAA repair, cut into uniaxial samples (90) and tested mechanically within 3 h. If possible, the samples were cut in both axial (49 samples) and circumferential (41 samples) directions. Wall thickness, First Piola-Kirchhoff strength P ult and ultimate tension T ult were recorded. Influence of sample orientation and other clinical parameters were investigated using non parametric tests., Results: Medians of P ult (values 1100 kPa for circumferential vs. 715 kPa for axial direction, p < 10 -4 ) and T ult (17.4 N/cm in circumferential vs. 11.2 N/cm in axial direction, p < 10 -4 ) were significantly higher in circumferential direction. For paired data, the median of difference was 411 kPa (p < 10 -3 ) in P ult and 7.4 N/cm (p < 10 -4 ) in T ult in favor of circumferential direction., Conclusions: In this first study of anisotropy in AAA wall failure properties using paired comparisons, the strength in circumferential orientation was found to be higher than in axial orientation., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: Several studies of biomechanical rupture risk assessment (BRRA) showed its advantage over the diameter criterion in rupture risk assessment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). However, BRRA studies have not investigated the predictability of biomechanical risk indices at different time points ahead of rupture, nor have they been performed blinded for biomechanical analysts. The objective of this study was to test the predictability of the BRRA method against diameter-based risk indices in a quasi-prospective patient cohort study., Methods: In total, 12 women and 31 men with intact AAAs at baseline have been selected retrospectively at two medical centers. Within 56 months, 19 cases ruptured, whereas 24 cases remained intact within 2 to 56 months. This outcome was kept confidential until all biomechanical activities in this study were finished. The biomechanical AAA rupture risk was calculated at baseline using high-fidelity and low-fidelity finite element method models. The capability of biomechanics-based and diameter-based risk indices to predict the known outcomes at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months after baseline was validated. Besides common cohort statistics, the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating characteristic curves has been used to grade the different rupture risk indices., Results: Up to 9 months ahead of rupture, the receiver operating characteristic analysis of biomechanics-based risk indices showed a higher AUC than diameter-based indices. Six months ahead of rupture, the largest difference was observed with an AUC of 0.878 for the high-fidelity biomechanical risk index, 0.859 for the low-fidelity biomechanical risk index, 0.789 for the diameter, and 0.821 for the sex-adjusted diameter. In predictions beyond 9 months, none of the risk indices proved to be superior., Conclusions: High-fidelity biomechanical modeling improves the predictability of AAA rupture. Asymptomatic AAA patients with high biomechanical AAA rupture risk indices have an increased risk of rupture. Integrating biomechanics-based diagnostic indices may significantly decrease the false-positive rate in AAA treatment., Clinical Relevance: Rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is the tenth leading cause of death in men older than 60 years; however, the currently used maximal diameter criterion has a high false-positive rate. In this study, we have compared this criterion with biomechanical rupture risk assessment on the unique data set of 43 asymptomatic AAAs, of which 19 ruptured later. Moreover, the AAA outcome was blinded to the operator for the first time. Our data demonstrated that the biomechanical rupture risk assessment is superior to maximal diameter in predicting AAA rupture up to 9 months ahead and significantly decreases the false-positive rate., (Copyright © 2019 Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: There is no standard for measuring maximal diameter (Dmax) of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) from computer tomography (CT) images although differences between Dmax evaluated from transversal (axialDmax) or orthogonal (orthoDmax) planes can be large especially for angulated AAAs. Therefore we investigated their correlations with alternative rupture risk indicators as peak wall stress (PWS) and peak wall rupture risk (PWRR) to decide which Dmax is more relevant in AAA rupture risk assessment., Material and Methods: The Dmax values were measured by a trained radiologist from 70 collected CT scans, and the corresponding PWS and PWRR were evaluated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The cohort was ordered according to the difference between axialDmax and orthoDmax (D a-o ) quantifying the aneurysm angulation, and Spearman's correlation coefficients between PWS/PWRR - orthoDmax/axialDmax were calculated., Results: The calculated correlations PWS/PWRR vs. orthoDmax were substantially higher for angulated AAAs (with D a-o ≥3mm). Under this limit, the correlations were almost the same for both Dmax values. Analysis of AAAs divided into two groups of angulated (n=38) and straight (n=32) cases revealed that both groups are similar in all parameters (orthoDmax, PWS, PWRR) with the exception of axialDmax (p=0.024)., Conclusions: It was confirmed that orthoDmax is better correlated with the alternative rupture risk predictors PWS and PWRR for angulated AAAs (D A-O ≥3mm) while there is no difference between orthoDmax and axialDmax for straight AAAs (D A-O <3mm). As angulated AAAs represent a significant portion of cases it can be recommended to use orthoDmax as the only Dmax parameter for AAA rupture risk assessment., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The mechanism of angioplasty is disruption of atherosclerotic plaque, which often results in dissections. Dissection after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) remains a significant clinical problem and untreated may cause acute occlusion or later restenosis. Stents are used to manage dissections, which is often followed by in-stent restenosis and occasionally stent fracture. Tack (Intact Vascular, Wayne, Pa) implants have minimal metal and low radial force and are specifically designed for dissection repair. This study evaluated Tack implants for treatment of dissections resulting from standard balloon PTA for femoral-popliteal arterial disease. Twelve-month outcomes after Tack treatment of post-PTA dissections are described., Methods: This prospective, single-arm study evaluated patients with ischemia (Rutherford clinical category 2-4) caused by lesions of the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries. Patients were treated with standard balloon angioplasty, and post-PTA dissections were treated with Tacks. The primary end points were core laboratory-adjudicated device technical success, defined as the ability of the Tack implants to resolve post-PTA dissection, and device safety, defined as the absence of new-onset major adverse events. Patients were followed up to 12 months after implantation., Results: Tacks were used in 130 patients with post-PTA dissections (74.0% ≥ grade C). Technical success was achieved in 128 (98.5%) patients with no major adverse events at 30 days. The 12-month patency was 76.4%, and freedom from target lesion revascularization was 89.5%. Significant improvement from baseline was observed in Rutherford clinical category (82.8% with grade ≤1) and ankle-brachial index (0.68 ± 0.18 to 0.94 ± 0.15; P < .0001)., Conclusions: Tack implant treatment of post-PTA dissection was safe, produced reasonable patency, and resulted in low rates of target lesion revascularization. Tack treatment represents a new, minimal metal paradigm for dissection repair that can safely improve the clinical results associated with PTA., (Copyright © 2016 Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Since the end of the 20th century, robot-assisted surgery has been finding its role among other minimally invasive methods. Vascular surgery seems to be another specialty in which the benefits of this technology can be expected. Our objective was to assess the learning curve of robot-assisted laparoscopic aortofemoral bypass grafting for aortoiliac occlusive disease in a group of 40 patients., Methods: Between May 2006 and January 2010, 40 patients (32 men, 8 women), who were a median age of 58 years (range, 48-75 years), underwent 40 robot-assisted laparoscopic aortofemoral reconstructions. Learning curve estimations were used for anastomosis, clamping, and operative time assessment. For conversion rate evaluation, the cumulative summation (CUSUM) technique was used. Statistical analysis comparing the first and second half of our group, and unilateral-to-bilateral reconstructions were performed., Results: We created 21 aortofemoral and 19 aortobifemoral bypasses. The median proximal anastomosis time was 23 minutes (range, 18-50 minutes), median clamping time was 60 minutes (range, 40-95 minutes), and median operative time was 295 minutes (range, 180-475 minutes). The 30-day mortality rate was 0%, and no graft or wound infection or cardiopulmonary or hepatorenal complications were observed. During the median 18-month follow-up (range, 2-48 months), three early graft occlusions occurred (7%). After reoperations, the secondary patency of reconstructions was 100%. Data showed a typical short learning curve for robotic proximal anastomosis creation with anastomosis and clamping time reduction. The operative time learning curve was flat, confirming the procedure's complexity. There were two conversions to open surgery. CUSUM analysis confirmed that an acceptable conversion rate set at 5% was achieved. Comparing the first and second half of our group, all recorded times showed statistically significant improvements. Differences between unilateral and bilateral reconstructions were not statistically significant., Conclusions: Our results show that the success rate of robot-assisted laparoscopic aortofemoral bypass grafting is high and the complication rate is low. Anastomosis creation, one of the main difficulties of laparoscopic bypass grafting, has been overcome using the robotic operating system and its learning curve is short. However, the endoscopic dissection of the aortoiliac segment remains the most difficult part of the operation and should be addressed in further development of the method to reduce the operative times. Long-term results and potential benefits of this minimally invasive method have to be verified by randomized controlled clinical trials., (Copyright © 2011 Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.)