Percutaneous puncture of venous bypass grafts for transluminal angioplasty.

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty was performed on 45 patients with vascular stenoses after vein bypass surgery. In 25 cases, the angioplasty catheter was introduced by direct puncture of the vein graft. The procedure was successful and reoperation was avoided in all but one of these cases. There were no complications. The experience has shown that in selected postoperative patients, direct puncture of the graft is safe and greatly facilitates performance of the angioplasty.