Unusual surgical exposures to avoid scarred or infected standard access routes to the common femoral, deep femoral, and popliteal arteries.

Standard approaches to lower extremity arteries may be rendered difficult or unusable because of scarring or infection, or both. This article describes unusual alternative approaches to facilitate lower extremity bypasses that would normally require approaches to the common femoral, deep femoral, or popliteal arteries. Techniques are described for using the distal external iliac artery, the distal two-thirds of the deep femoral artery, and the above-knee and below-knee popliteal artery approached laterally.