Background: Clear evidence of cerebral blood circulation has not been shown after axillo-axillary bypass surgery in patients with subclavian steal syndrome.
Methods: We investigated the cerebral circulation and blood flow in 3 patients receiving axillo-axillary bypass by RI angiography using 99mTc-dl hexamethyl propylene amine oxime (99mTc-HMPAO). Two patients had vertebral basilar cerebral symptoms which were related to decreased cerebral blood flow evidenced by 99mTc-HMPAO.
Results: After the correction, cerebral symptoms disappeared and improved cerebral blood circulation detected by 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT.
Conclusions: We concluded that axillo-axillary bypass was a fairly effective procedure to improve cerebral blood circulation evidenced by 99mTc-HMPAO-SPECT.