Purpose: To evaluate the angiographic patterns of clinically manifest recurrent disease after infrainguinal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of stenoses and total occlusions.
Methods: Among 326 infrainguinal PTAs on 263 consecutive patients, selective angiography was performed on 61 limbs of 52 patients 1-60 months after the primary intervention because of clinically suspected recurrent disease. Lesion-specific and patient-related factors were analyzed for 75 angiographically confirmed recurrent lesions in 57 limbs of 48 patients.
Results: Recurrent disease was more frequently a stenosis when the original target lesion was a stenosis (92%, 44/48) than when the original lesion was a total occlusion (59%, 16/27; p < 0.001). When the original target lesion was a stenosis, the total length of the recurrent disease was longer than that of the original lesion [3.9 +/- 3.9 cm (mean +/- standard deviation) vs 2.8 +/- 2.7 cm; p = 0.03], while in the subgroup of original total occlusions the length of the recurrent lesion was shorter than that of the original occlusion (7.1 +/- 5.0 cm vs 9.9 +/- 6.9 cm; p = 0.02). Half the restenosis (22/44) extended beyond one or both ends of the original stenosis and 38% (6/16) of the reocclusions extended beyond the distal end of the original occlusion.
Conclusions: The type of recurrent disease depends on the original lesion type and the restenotic lesion frequently extends beyond one or both ends of the original target lesion.