Novel application of the "CART" technique for endovascular treatment of external iliac artery occlusions.

We report the novel application of the Controlled Antegrade and Retrograde subintimal Tracking technique for the endovascular treatment of occlusions of the external iliac artery (EIA). We hypothesized that this technique would limit the extent of subintimal dissection to the length of the EIA occlusion, thus preserving patency of the internal iliac artery proximally and the circumflex iliac artery distally and minimizing the length of stent required to treat the occlusion, including the length of stent placed in the common femoral artery. The technical execution and clinical experience with this technique is reported. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.