Cystic adventitial disease of the popliteal artery. Clinical aspects and etiology.

Cystic adventitial disease of the popliteal artery is a rare and benign disease. The appearance of claudication in a young male nonsmoker and the typical angiographic findings usually confirm the pathology. The treatment of choice is incision evacuation of the cyst. Long-term follow-up of two cases proved to be excellent with this therapy. A saphenous bypass graft provides a good alternative if incision evacuation fails to restore good peripheral pulses. The etiology of this lesion proves to be similar to a ganglion and is well demonstrated in two cases.