Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty for Obstructive Lesions of the Aortic Arch

摘要

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is the percutaneous, fluoroscopically guided use of balloon-tipped catheters to remove or relieve stenotic or occlusive lesions of the vascular system. Since its introduction in 1964, PTA has been widely used to treat atherosclerotic occlusive disease of the coronary, renal, iliac, and femoral arteries. However, PTA of the aortic arch arteries has been only rarely performed due to fear of cerebral emboli. While several authors have reported the successful use of PTA in these vessels, their experience, so far, with series of small numbers of patients, suggests a high degree of success and low complication rate when careful selection of patients is made and the angioplasty is performed by an experienced individual. The treatment of patients with obstructive lesions of the aortic arch vessels with PTA is a relatively new procedure that lacks adequate long-term followup.