EXPERIENCE OF HYBRID SURGICAL TREATMENT FOR MULTILEVEL OCCLUSIVE-STENOTIC ARTERIAL LESIONS IN LOWER EXTREMITIES

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease affects approximately 20% of individuals over the age of 70 and is particularly prevalent among smokers and diabetics. The increasing global prevalence of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and smoking suggests a further rise in its occurrence. The treatment of this disease incurs significant economic costs, which are projected to continue growing. This disease is associated with high rates of disability, morbidity, and mortality. Without revascularization, 20 to 40% of patients face limb loss, and over 20% die within six months. Conservative therapies are often ineffective, leading to the surgical methods. In cases of critical limb ischemia, revascularization is performed to improve blood flow distal to stenotic or occlusive lesions. Open surgery remains the standard of care, demonstrating good limb preservation and long-term outcomes. The success of bypass procedures depends on multiple factors. The use of endovascular techniques is rapidly increasing, supported by substantial long-term data. While endovascular surgery reduces perioperative complications, choosing the appropriate instrumentation and assessing associated costs remain contentious. Method selection depends on several factors. For certain patients where open surgery is technically challenging or impractical, endovascular surgery provides a viable solution for revascularization. In such cases, revascularization of all arterial lesion levels using a combination of methods is indicated to restore limb blood supply. Isolated revascularization of a single anatomical level is often insufficient and rarely leads to the healing of trophic changes. Hybrid surgery, involving a combination of techniques during a single intervention, is a common approach. This type of surgical procedure includes endovascular correction of the iliac segment with femoral endarterectomy and/or infrainguinal bypass. Another common option is an "above knee bypass" with tibial balloon angioplasty. Surgical treatment using hybrid procedures demonstrates high technical success, good primary and secondary patency rates, limb preservation, and economic efficiency. In this article, we present two clinical cases of hybrid surgical lower extremity revascularization performed at the Department of Vascular Surgery of the M.V. Sklifosovsky Poltava Regional Clinical Hospital. These cases involve patients with stage IV peripheral artery disease (Fontaine classification) caused by an atherosclerotic process. Computed tomography with angiography and digital subtraction angiography were employed as two distinct methods for studying the vascular bed in routine patient management. The method selection was based on angiosomal targets and the suspected vascular lesions initially diagnosed. The objective of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of various hybrid surgical treatment methods for patients with critical limb ischemia resulting from multilevel occlusive-stenotic arterial lesions.