A single-center experience in the eversion femoral endarterectomy

Objectives Endarterectomy is the treatment of choice for arterial occlusive disease of the femoral bifurcation. Longitudinal arteriotomy and prosthetic patch angioplasty is the standard technique but, due to the increasing concerns with prosthetic-related infections and multidrug-resistant pathogens our group adopted an alternative approach. We present our experience with eversion femoral endarterectomy. Methods All patients submitted to eversion femoral endarterectomy in a single institution during 2016–2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Patient demographics, surgical data, and complications were captured from medical records. Results Nineteen patients, 84.2% male and a median age of 67 years (IQR 62–78) were submitted to eversion femoral endarterectomy with a median follow-up of 180 days (IQR 71–395). Seventeen (89.4%) patients were treated for chronic limb ischemia and the other two were submitted to femoral endarterectomy during endovascular aortic aneurysm repair. Most of the patients had smoking history (84.2%), followed by hypertension (68.4%), dyslipidemia (63.2%), coronary heart disease (29.4%), and diabetes (26.3%). Only 3 patients (15.8%) were submitted exclusively to endarterectomy, 13 (68.4%) were submitted to endarterectomy as an adjuvant for peripheral endovascular treatment, 2 (10.5%) as a concomitant procedure to endovascular repair of aortic aneurysm, and 1 (5.3%) was complemented with thrombectomy of the femoro-popliteal sector. Primary patency rates were 100% and 87.5% (CI (38.7–98.1)) at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Primary-assisted and secondary patency rates were 100%. The 30-day mortality rate was 5.3% ( n = 1) and complication rate 10.5% ( n = 2). One patient complicated with acute renal disease related to rhabdomyolysis. Another patient developed a wound-related hematoma treated with surgical drainage, but died three days after consequent to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Conclusions Eversion femoral endarterectomy is a safe and feasible technique, with good patency results and respecting the concept of leaving nothing behind. A careful control of the proximal and distal endpoints is essential for the success of the technique.