Use of superficial femoral artery to treat an infected great vessel prosthetic graft.

We report a patient treated for infection of an ascending aorta to bilateral common carotid artery bypass graft. The superficial femoral arteries were used for the reconstruction after local treatment failed. The patient is free from infection and the grafts are patent 4 years after operation. We believe this is the only report in the literature in which the superficial femoral arteries were used to reconstruct an infected great vessel graft.