Improved strategies for secondary operations on infrainguinal arteries.

Secondary interventions play an important role in achieving the ultimate goal of limb salvage after primary infrainguinal interventions fail. By employing the described strategies and principles for secondary arterial reconstructions below the inguinal ligament, good results in terms of patency of the reoperated primary reconstruction or the secondary reconstruction can be obtained with significantly augmented limb salvage at a low cost in operative morbidity and mortality. These results mandate that vascular surgeons maintain an aggressive attitude toward the use of these secondary operations when a primary procedure fails to achieve or maintain its intended goal and a patient is faced with imminent limb loss because of distal ischemia.