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Annals of Surgery logoLink to Annals of Surgery
. 1979 Oct;190(4):555–556. doi: 10.1097/00000658-197910000-00016

The anatomic basis for the occasional failure of transfemoral balloon catheter thromboembolectomy.

D Short, G D Vaughn 3rd, J Jachimczyk, M W Gallagher, R Garcia-Rinaldi
PMCID: PMC1344527  PMID: 485622

Abstract

A Fogarty balloon catheter was advanced from the common femoral artery through the popliteal artery and its branches in 15 cadavers. The catheter passed into the peroneal branch 89% of the time. In all 15 cadavers, the peroneal artery was the direct continuation of the popliteal artery and the arterior tibial and posterior tibial arteries branched off at varying angles from the popliteal. This provides an anatomic explanation for the occasional failure of transfemoral Fogarty catheter embolectomy of the leg. Our study suggests that if the patient's foot does not improve after Fogarty embolectomy, the popliteal artery should be exposed and the catheter directed into the shank arteries using vascular forceps.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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