Obturator foramen bypass in the management of infected prosthetic vascular grafts.

The obturator foramen bypass graft remains an excellent option for revascularizing the lower extremity when dealing with an infected prosthetic vascular graft in the groin. In this series, six obturator foramen bypass grafts were performed in five patients for infectious groin complications following vascular surgery. Conservative measures such as local antibiotic irrigation and abscess drainage designed to preserve the graft in situ had failed to eradicate the infection in all instances and was complicated by suture-line haemorrhage in three instances. An aggressive approach should be adopted, aimed at excision of the infected graft. The obturator foramen bypass graft remains a durable graft for limb salvage. Five out of six obturator foramen bypass grafts were patent after 11-26 months follow up.