A 5 year follow-up of Dacron femoropopliteal bypass grafts.

Over a 5 1/2 year period, 66 Dacron femoropopliteal grafts were performed for patients with an absent or unsuitable long saphenous vein. The minimum follow-up has been 6 months and cumulative patency was 50 per cent at 5 years. Twenty-five patients had critical ischaemia (preoperative Doppler ankle pressure less than 40 mmHg) and 41 patients had severe ischaemia (pre-operative ankle pressure greater than 40 mmHg). The procedure significantly improved ankle pressures in both groups and this was maintained at follow-up. In the group of 25 patients with critical ischaemia there were three operative deaths and in 10 the graft subsequently occluded, precipitating an amputation. In the group of forty-one patients with severe ischaemia, there was one operative death and in two patients the graft occluded at 18 and 24 months. In this small series there was no significant difference in patency, whether the graft was placed to the popliteal artery above or below the knee joint, or whether the popliteal had less than three patent branches at its trifurcation.