Endovascular stent implantation for treatment of peripheral artery disease.

Endovascular stent implantation is a rapidly emerging technology for treatment of arterial obstructions in the entire circulation. During recent years, several randomized studies evaluated the effects of stenting in lower limb arteries. We herein provide an overview on data of trials in the iliac and femoropopliteal vessel area discussing the benefits and limitations of endovascular stents. In the iliac arteries, midterm and long-term data from one randomized trial including analysis on patency, clinical outcomes, cost-effectiveness and quality of life indicate that balloon angioplasty with selective stenting remains the therapy of choice for endovascular revascularization. In the femoropopliteal arteries, balloon-expanding stents were not superior to balloon angioplasty for treatment of short lesions, and self-expanding nitinol stents also failed to show a beneficial effect in short lesions below 5 cm. However, including longer lesions, one randomized trial indicated a beneficial effect of nitinol stents in lesions with a median length around 10-12 cm. Further studies and longer follow-up intervals are needed to confirm these data. Meanwhile, balloon angioplasty with optional stenting also remains the recommended endovascular approach for the femoropopliteal segment.