Initial experience with the polytetrafluoroethylene graft for limb salvage. A report on twenty patients.

The early results of the bypass procedures for limb salvage using the new polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) graft are analyzed. Of twenty patients presenting with either severe rest pain or gangrene, patency has been maintained in fourteen for a mean period of thirteen months to date. Particularly satisfying results have been achieved when bypassing into single dominant arteries below the knee where limb salvage and graft patency was obtained in all cases.