Faculty Bibliography

In the past 9 years, 1,196 patients whose lower extremity was threatened because of infrainguinal arteriosclerosis have been treated at Montefiore Hospital. In the last 6 years, limb salvage was attempted in 679, or 90% of 755 patients. Femoropopliteal (318), small vessel (204) and axillopopliteal (29) bypasses were used along with transluminal angioplasty (128) and aggressive local operations to obtain a healed foot. Immediate (one month) limb salvage was achieved in 583, or 85%, of the 679 patients in whom revascularization was possible. The 30-day mortality rate was 3%. The cumulative life table (LT) survival rate of all the patients undergoing reconstructive arterial operations was 48% at 5 years. The cumulative LT limb salvage rate after all reconstructive arterial operations was 66% at 5 years. The cumulative LT patency rate of femoropopliteal bypasses was not influenced by angiographic outflow characteristics of the popliteal artery but was increased 15% by appropriate reoperations to 67% at 5 years. Cumulative LT patency and limb salvage rates of small vessel and axillopopliteal bypasses were more than 50% at 2 years. Of patients undergoing arterial reconstruction, 88% of those who died within 5 years did so without losing their limbs. Of all the patients in whom limb salvage was attempted, 68% lived more than one year with a viable, usable extremity, and 54% lived over 2 years with an intact limb. We believe this aggressive approach to limb salvage is justified, and can be undertaken with a low cost in mortality, knee loss and morbidity

CSAD provides a challenge for the vascular surgeon. Patients are older, sicker, and at greater risk than are patients with unisegmental disease. Similarly, symptoms are more severe and limb loss is more frequent. A multitude of different reconstructive techniques are available, but their injudicious or untimely use can not only fail to improve the patient but can also cause limb loss or death. Their use must be predicated by a differentiation of which arterial segments are hemodynamically involved, yet this determination may not be possible even after extensive noninvasive and invasive investigation. To optimize the approach to these patients, the following principles should be employed. First, incapacitating claudication is a valid indication for a suprainguinal inflow procedure in a good-risk patient. However, indications for surgery should usually be limited to limb salvage, especially if an infrainguinal procedure is contemplated. Medical conditions such as heart failure and diabetes should be improved before arteriography. The latter should delineate the entire infrarenal arterial system, with special attention to the iliac, deep femoral, and pedal arteries. Oblique views may be of critical importance. Noninvasive hemodynamic tests should be used to confirm the need for arterial reconstruction and help delineate areas of functional stenosis. Direct pull-through pressure measurements may be required for ultimate confirmation. If proximal disease is thus defined, as proximal inflow operation should usually be sufficient unless there is extensive gangrene of the foot, in which case synchronous distal grafts may be required. If the proximal graft alone is performed, the patient must be followed closely since approximately 10% of patients may need subsequent distal reconstructions. The role of the 'runoff' segments such as the deep femoral artery, popliteal trifurcation, and pedal arteries may be critical. Every effort should be made to ensure flow through these vessels. Profundoplasty alone is seldom indicated but is often a valuable adjunct to other reconstructive procedures. Lumbar sympathectomy is seldom required. PTA is becoming a valuable adjunct to treatment of CSAD, and intraoperative dilatation also has potential attributes. If such an approach is followed, lasting limb salvage with minimal morbidity should be achieved in most patients with CSAD

Of 129 femoropopliteal bypasses, 40 closed in 0 to 42 months. Early and late closures were not predicted by pre- or postoperative ankle/brachial pressure index (ABPI) or ankle pulse volume recording amplitude (APVR) or their increments (delta). Of 141 femorotibial bypasses, 60 closed in 0 to 12 months, with 46 closing early (less than 1 month). Early failure occurred in 19 of 52 limbs (37%) with pre-ABPI less than 0.2 and 17 of 89 limbs (19%) with pre-ABPI greater than 0.2 (p less than 0.025). Similar significant differences in early patency occurred between limbs with pre-APVR less than 5 and greater than 5 mm (29 of 94 [34%] vs. 7 of 47 [15%], respectively). Late closure was not predicted by either value. Thus in the 44 limbs with pre-ABPI greater than 0.2 and pre-APVR greater than 5 mm, only 11 grafts closed (25%), whereas if pre-ABPI was less than 0.2 or pre-APVR less than 5 mm, 49 of 97 grafts (51%) occluded within 17 months (p less than 0.025). Postoperative or delta indices had no predictive value. Preoperative ABPI less than 0.2 or APVR less than 5 mm was associated with twice the risk of early femorotibial graft closure; however, cumulative life-table patency was still 39% at 24 months

Antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) has been advocated for the treatment of renal transplant rejection episodes in patients maintained on prednisone and azathioprine. Treatment with steroids (outpatient) is considerably less expensive than with ALG (inpatient), so we studied whether routine ALG was necessary. Between 3/82 and 11/83, 54 cadaver transplant recipients maintained on prednisone and azathioprine who developed a first rejection episode were randomized to receive--for treatment of their first, and if necessary second, rejection--methylprednisolone (MP) plus ALG (n = 24), or MP alone, with ALG added if treatment failed (n = 30). Treatment failure was defined as continuing deterioration on T131 iodohippuran scan, rising serum creatinine level, or lack of improvement within 7 days. There was no significant difference in patient survival, graft survival, mean number of rejections, and infection rate between the two groups: 60% (18/30) of first and 50% (10/10) of second rejection episodes responded to MP alone. We conclude that patients are not penalized by initial rejection treatment with MP. Many rejection episodes respond to steroids alone; elimination of routine ALG use will save hospitalization time and expense

Previous studies of the value of percutaneous renal transplant biopsy have been retrospective. We prospectively studied whether biopsy affected patient management. Thirty-five patients with elevated serum creatinine level underwent 44 biopsies in situations in which the diagnosis was in doubt. At the time of biopsy, all clinical and laboratory data were reviewed, and a proposed treatment plan was outlined. Biopsy results were available within 24 hours. We evaluated whether biopsy influenced treatment. Other than hematuria (less than 24 hours), there were no complications. Nine biopsy specimens (20.5%) were inadequate for evaluation. Forty-six percent of adequate biopsy specimens (36% of total biopsy specimens) influenced patient management. Adequate biopsy specimens resulted in a change in treatment in 10 of 19 patients receiving prednisone and azathioprine and 6 of 16 receiving prednisone and cyclosporine. The remaining biopsy specimens, although not changing management confirmed the treatment plan in ambiguous clinical situations. We conclude that percutaneous biopsy is an important aid in patient management

To maximize organ utilization, we assessed the feasibility of retrieving the heart and two single lungs or the heart and a separate bilateral lung block for transplantation into multiple recipients. In eight dogs the excision of the heart-lung block or of the left lung was followed by six hours of lung preservation. Four of these lungs and all eight hearts were transplanted successfully. In addition, satisfactory retrieval of the three separate organs or of the heart and a separate bilateral lung block was done in six human cadavers. An appropriate division of the left atrial wall provided suitable cuffs for individual transplantation of the three organs or for the heart and bilateral lung block. This study demonstrates the feasibility of multiple organ donation from a single donor followed by separate organ transplantation

Routine use of axillobifemoral (ABF) bypass has been advocated because this operation is thought to achieve better patency than the axillounifemoral (AUF) procedure. In 5 years we performed 34 AUF and 22 ABF bypass operations for limb salvage in high-risk patients using 6 mm polytetrafluoroethylene grafts. Five-year cumulative life table patency rates for AUF bypasses were 71% with reoperation (secondary patency) and 44% without reoperation (primary patency). These values were not significantly different (p greater than 0.5) from those for ABF bypasses (77% and 50%, respectively). Five-year limb salvage results (AUF 73%; ABF 89%) were also not significantly different (p greater than 0.1). Correlation of arterial outflow characteristics with graft patency revealed that 78% of the patients who never had graft occlusion had occluded superficial femoral arteries (SFA) demonstrated at the first operation, while 79% of the patients who experienced graft closure had comparable SFA occlusions. Our aggressive approach to graft thrombosis included angiographic study of the inflow arterial system. This revealed that 16% of the failed grafts were associated with hemodynamically significant stenosis of the donor subclavian artery. Our results indicate that AUF bypass is the procedure of choice for unilateral limb ischemia in high-risk patients who require an axillary source and that patency of the SFA does not affect outcome. These results also emphasize the need to obtain angiographic evaluation of the inflow system

While it is generally thought that collateral back pressure (CBP) is a reliable predictor of graft patency, this correlation has not yet been validated. We have used a new, simple technique to measure CBP without direct puncture of the recipient artery. After the distal anastomosis is completed, the graft is filled with saline and clamped proximally. A transducer connected needle is then inserted into the distal portion of the graft for CBP measurements (mm Hg). These were obtained in 84 grafts (43 femoropopliteals [FP] and 41 femorodistals [FD]). Outflow resistance (OR) measurements (mm Hg/ml/min) were also obtained in 70 (36 FP; 34 FD) of these grafts by a previously described technique. The mean CBP for FP and FD bypasses was 41 +/- 17 and 26 +/- 19 mm Hg, respectively (P less than 0.001). Although early graft patency (3 months) (13 occluded, 71 patent) did not correlate with angiographic findings of popliteal runoff or integrity of pedal arch, it did significantly relate to CBP. Mean CBP for occluded grafts was 22 +/- 17 mm Hg and for patent grafts it was 36 +/- 19 mm Hg (P less than 0.01). Similarly, mean OR was significantly related to patency, 1.29 +/- 0.23 mm Hg/ml/min for occluded grafts and 0.36 +/- 0.23 mm Hg/ml/min for patent grafts (P less than 0.0001). Moreover, only OR was a significant predictor of infrapopliteal graft patency (P less than 0.01). OR was found to be a better predictor of graft patency than CBP by stepwise logistic regression analysis (P less than 0.0001). We conclude that CBP is a more reliable predictor of graft outcome than angiographic criteria.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)