Introduction: The advent of effective endovascular techniques has revolutionized the treatment of iliac occlusive disease. Long-segment iliac occlusions remain technically difficult to treat, particularly in the presence of femoral disease. Iliac endarterectomy is an established procedure for the treatment of iliac occlusive disease, but it has been suggested that in the era of effective endovascular intervention, its role is limited.
Methods: A review of all patients who had eversion endarterectomy of the external iliac artery from a single institution between 2000 and 2008.
Results: Twenty-one patients (18 male) underwent eversion external iliac endarterectomy, 15 for external iliac and 6 for iliofemoral disease. Mean age was 64.7 years (range: 46-78 years) and the modal American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) grade was 3. The indications were critical ischemia (n = 16) and disabling claudication (n = 5). Twelve had adjunctive procedures. The mean follow-up was 25.3 months (range: 1-59 months). There were no technical failures. Seventeen patients had significant improvement in symptoms and three had moderate improvement. The cumulative primary patency at 1 year was 81%. One patient had no improvement (because of infrainguinal occlusive disease), and subsequently required femoro-popliteal bypass. There was no systemic morbidity within 30 days. There was 1 in-hospital death from sudden cardiac arrest (47 days postoperatively). Six patients died during follow-up (from unrelated illness).
Conclusion: Eversion external iliac endarterectomy is an effective means of treating iliofemoral occlusive disease with excellent short-term outcomes and a low complication rate in a cohort with high levels of comorbidity.