Endovascular Repair of Popliteal Artery Injury Post-total Knee Arthroplasty is Safe and Effective: A Case Report and Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Background: Popliteal artery pseudoaneurysms are a rare but serious complication following total knee arthroplasty that have been traditionally managed with open surgical repair. Endovascular stenting, while relatively new, offers a promising alternative that is less invasive and may reduce the risk of perioperative complications.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted, and all clinical reports in the English language from inception to July 2022 were identified. References were manually reviewed to identify additional studies. Demographics, procedural techniques, postprocedural complications, and followup data were extracted and analyzed using STATA 14.1. Additionally, we present a case of a patient with a popliteal pseudoaneurysm treated with a covered endovascular stent.

Results: A total of 14 studies (12 case reports, 2 case series; n = 17) were included for review. In all cases, a stent-graft was placed across the popliteal artery lesion. In 5 out of 11 cases, popliteal artery thrombus was present and treated with adjacent modalities (i.e., mechanical thrombectomy, balloon angioplasty, etc.). Procedure success was reported in all cases without perioperative adverse events. Stents remained patent over a median followup of 32 weeks (interquartile range: 36). In all but one case, the patients experienced immediate symptom relief and had an uneventful recovery. For our case, at the 12-month followup the patient was asymptomatic, and ultrasound demonstrated vessel patency.

Conclusions: Endovascular stenting is a safe and effective treatment for popliteal pseudoaneurysms. Future studies should be aimed at evaluating the long-term outcomes of such minimally invasive techniques.