Background: The incidence of critical limb ischemia (CLI) is exponentially rising among our aging population. There is a paucity of scientific evidence on best management and clinical outcome of infra-popliteal (IP) revascularizations in elderly CLI patients.
Methods: A prospectively collected database was analyzed to identify consecutive octogenarian and nonagenarian patients who underwent IP revascularizations (bypass or angioplasty) for CLI (Rutherford 4-6) in a single center between 2010-2014. The primary end points were overall amputation-free-survival (AFS) and overall survival (OS) at 1 and 2 years. Secondary endpoints were primary, assisted-primary, secondary patency and limb-salvage (LS) rates by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed to find factors predicting outcome.
Results: A total of 129 limbs in 120 patients were treated with IP bypass (N.=42) and endovascular (N.=87) revascularizations with a mean age of 85(±5) years. The overall primary patency, assisted-primary patency and secondary patency were 58%, 65% and 70%, respectively at 12 months and 34%, 48% and 59% at 24 months. Primary, assisted-primary and secondary patency analyzed by treatment method (endovascular vs. bypass) was 54% vs. 52%, 61% vs. 70%, 69% vs. 75% at 1 year and 21% vs. 36%, 24% vs. 62%, 31% vs. 72% at 2 years. The overall AFS at 12 and 24 months was 62% and 46% respectively; AFS was 71%-68% in the bypass group and 53-21% in the Endovascular group (P<0.001). LS was 89% at 12 months and 84% at 24 months, with no significant difference between the bypass and endovascular groups (P=0.24). The overall perioperative mortality rate was 2%. OS by Kaplan-Meier was 68% and 54% at 1 and 2 years respectively. Diabetes (P=0.046) and low eGFR (P=0.041) were predictors of worse AFS and OS, respectively.
Conclusions: IP revascularizations (either endovascular or surgical) is feasible and effective in octogenarians and nonagenarians with CLI. By adopting a patient-tailored approach, both revascularizations strategies have satisfactory technical and clinical outcomes in this high-risk group. Subgroup analysis suggests that bypass surgery may have better mid-term secondary patency and AFS rates.