Cryoplasty for the treatment of femoropopliteal arterial disease: results of a prospective, multicenter registry

Abstract

Purpose: Despite suboptimal results, angioplasty of femoropopliteal arterial lesions has been a mainstay of endovascular therapy for many years. The recent introduction of cryoplasty marks a potential advance in the ability to effectively treat peripheral arterial atherosclerotic stenoses. This article presents the results of a prospective, multicenter trial that evaluated the efficacy of cryoplasty for femoropopliteal disease.

Materials and methods: One hundred two patients with claudication and lesions of the superficial femoral and popliteal arteries of no greater than 10 cm were studied. All patients were treated with a primary strategy of stand-alone cryoplasty with use of the PolarCath cryoplasty system. The primary endpoints of the study were acute technical success and clinical patency at 9 months. Technical success was defined as the ability to achieve residual angiographic stenosis no greater than 30% and residual stenosis less than 50% by duplex ultrasound (US) imaging. Clinical patency was defined as freedom from target lesion revascularization within 9 months. Primary patency was defined by a duplex US systolic velocity ratio no greater than 2.0.

Results: A total of 102 patients were enrolled at 16 centers. Of those treated, 31% had diabetes and 31% were active cigarette smokers. The majority of the lesions were confined to the superficial femoral artery (84.3%) and 14.7% presented with total occlusions. The mean vessel diameter treated was 5.5 mm +/- 0.5, the mean stenosis diameter was 87% +/- 10%, and the mean lesion length was 4.7 cm +/- 2.6. The technical success rate was 85.3% with a mean residual stenosis after cryoplasty of 11.2% +/- 11.2% (P < .05 vs baseline). Clinical patency in this group was 82.2%, as only 16 patients required target lesion revascularization during the 9-month surveillance period. Primary patency determined by duplex US was 70.1%.

Conclusions: Cryoplasty demonstrated a high degree of acute angiographic success and a low frequency of target lesion revascularization. The patency rate observed compares favorably to that previously documented with conventional angioplasty.