Purpose: Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is one of the treatment options for localized obstruction of the subclavian artery. To document long-term durability of this kind of PTA we report a 10-year single-center experience in 110 patients.
Methods: From January 1993 to July 2003, 110 patients (72 women; mean age, 62 +/- 10 years) underwent PTA of symptomatic (>75%) stenosis (n = 90) or occlusion of the proximal subclavian artery (84 left-sided). Forty one patients (37%) had symptoms of vertebrobasilar insufficiency, 29 patients (26%) had disabling chronic arm ischemia, and 20 patients had both symptoms. Twenty patients with coronary artery disease underwent PTA in preparation for myocardial revascularization with the internal mammary artery. Duplex scans and arteriograms confirmed significant stenosis or occlusion. All PTA procedures were performed with the patient under local anesthesia, through the femoral artery (n = 89), brachial artery (n = 6), or combined route (n = 15). In 59 patients (58%) an additional stent was placed.
Results: Angioplasty was initially technically and clinically successful in 102 patients (93%). Seven occlusions could not be recanalized, and 1 procedure had to be stopped because of ischemic stroke. Of the 102 patients in whom treatment was successful, 1 patient (1%) had a minor stroke in the contralateral hemisphere 2 hours post-PTA. Seven patients (7%) had minor problems, all without permanent sequelae. Follow-up with duplex scanning ranged from 3 months to 10 years (mean, 34 months). Primary clinical patency at 5 years was 89%, with a median recurrent obstruction-free period of 23 months. The local complication rate was 4.5%, and the combined stroke and death rate was 3.6%. Significant recurrent obstruction (>70%) developed in 8 patients with clinical symptoms. Four stenoses were successfully treated with repeat PTA (2 with additional stent placement); 4occlusions required surgery.
Conclusions: PTA of obstructive lesions of the proximal subclavian artery is not only an effective initial treatment, but is also successful over the long-term. Inasmuch as all clinical failures occured within 26 months after initial therapy, we recommend regular follow-up for at least 2 years post-PTA. All clinically significant recurrent stenoses can be treated with repeat endovascular procedures. We could not prove positive or negative influence of additional placement of stents; however, the number of recurrent stenoses might be too small in this retrospective study to draw firm conclusions. Adverse events of any kind are certainly no greater than with invasive surgical procedures. Therefore PTA must be seriously considered in patients with localized obstruction of the proximal subclavian artery.