Treatment of intestinal angina by percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of a superior mesenteric artery occlusion.

A 47-year-old woman with intestinal angina due to multiple visceral artery occlusions was treated surgically but suffered early thrombosis of an aorta-to-superior mesenteric artery (SMA) bypass graft and the return of her symptoms. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of the occluded native origin of the SMA was successful. Three months later she is well and gaining weight. Several series of patients treated by PTA of superior mesenteric artery stenoses have been published, but to our knowledge this is the first report of the successful application of the technique to a complete SMA occlusion.