title: New routing alternative for proximal anterior tibial artery bypass in patients with Buerger disease.
abstract: Femoral-anterior tibial artery bypasses with autogenous grafts are difficult to perform when sufficiently long saphenous veins are not available. We performed 12 bypasses on patients with Buerger disease during a 20-year period using a new intermuscular tunneling technique. The graft is passed from the thigh between the muscle compartments without penetrating the muscle fibers, providing an anatomically superior and shorter path. The primary patency rates were 75% at 5 years and 65% at 10 years. We believe that our tunneling technique is safe and durable and might be a viable alternative for proximal femoral-anterior tibial artery bypass in selected patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Taeseung
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hwan Do
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Ra
authors.forename: Yang Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyung Sub
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sang Joon
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012501:Saphenous Vein / Q000637:transplantation; D013919:Thromboangiitis Obliterans / Q000601:surgery*; D016909:Tibial Arteries / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome