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Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene in External Valvuloplasty for Superficial or Deep Vein Incompetence

B.M. Errichi, MD

L. Incandela, MD

M.T. De Sanctis, MD

G. Laurora, MD

A. Ricci, MD

G. Belcaro, MD, PhD

Via Vespucci 65 65100 Pescara Italy

The authors evaluated the long-term safety of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) implants used in external valvuloplasty for treatment of incompetence of the long saphenous and common and superficial femoral veins. During a 15-year period patients with superficial and/or deep venous disease and hypertension due to pure superficial or deep vein incompetence underwent an external valvuloplasty with ePTFE sutures, or an ePTFE cardiovascular patch placed as a sleeve around the incompetent vein segment, or an ePTFE tubular graft placed around the venous segment. Postoperative follow-up evaluations consisted of clinical examinations, high-resolution ultrasonography, and color duplex scanning, and a complete blood count performed at 1, 3 and 6 months, and repeated for at least 4 years, every 2 years after the procedure. A total of 101 patients (38 men and 63 women; mean [± sd] age, 44 ±12 years) underwent external valvuloplasty between January 1983 and December 1998; 82 of them completed the 4-year follow-up. Forty of the 82 patients had been operated on for superficial vein incompetence, 42 for deep vein incompetence. Overall, the mean follow- up time was 7.8 ± 3.6 years (range, 4 to 13). There were no infections, thromboses, foreign-body reactions to the ePTFE implants, or other prosthesis-related complications requiring explantation. One granuloma (noninfected) developed in association with a tubular ePTFE implant around a long saphenous vein, but it did not necessitate implant removal. Seven patients required (at least after 4 years) a second procedure for recurrent or new venous incompetence. Therefore, in this observational study, ePTFE implants used to treat or correct venous incompetence were well tolerated on a long- term basis.

Angiology, Vol. 51, No. 8, S27-S32 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/000331970005100804


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