OBJECTIVETo summarize therapeutic efficacy of vascular reconstruction in treating infrapopliteal arterial occlusion.

METHODSRetrospective analysis of vascular reconstruction of lower extremity was made in 56 cases suffering from popliteal arteries or 3 branches of popliteal arteries (anterior tibial, posterior tibial, peroneal artery) between July 2001 and August 2005 in our hospital. According to the level of lower extremity arterial occlusion, a composite grafts which consisting of a combined proximal PTFE prosthesis grafts with autogenous vein grafts were used to establish the sequential vascular reconstruction for multilevel and multistage arterial occlusive disease.

RESULTSThe mean follow-up period after operation was 17 months. The primary graft patency rates in this series was 67.3%, the secondary graft patency rate was 78.8%.

CONCLUSIONSThe treatment of composite sequential bypass is a practical means for multilevel arterial occlusive disease suffering from femoral-infrapopliteal arteries, which effectively resolves the insufficiency supply of autogenous vessel grafts and the problem of bad patency rate for vascular reconstruction with prosthetic grafts alone in arterial occlusion suffering from infrapopliteal arteries.