Treating femoropopliteal disease: established and emerging technologies.

The femoropopliteal artery is the most common site of disease in patients with peripheral arterial disease and presents some of the greatest challenges for interventional radiology. Many patients can be managed with medical treatment combined with supervised exercise alone. However, a significant proportion, especially those suffering from severe intermittent claudication or critical limb ischemia, will require some form of endovascular or surgical revascularization procedure. During the past few years an endovascular-first approach has gained support from all vascular specialties. Today, even complex lesions can be treated successfully with an endovascular approach. Unfortunately, the unique bio-mechanical properties of this vascular segment have limited long-term patency rates and clinical value of the endovascular options. In this review, the authors discuss the methods and techniques for treatment of femoropopliteal lesions and review the current evidence for commercially available devices on patency outcomes following successful recanalization.