Aortorenal arterial autografts.

Forty-nine iliac artery autografts were used in the treatment of renovascular hypertension in 45 patients, including six children. The pathological process was fibromuscular dysplasia in 42, atherosclerosis in two, and Takayasu arteritis in one. The internal iliac artery was used as a graft in 39 patients. The common iliac bifurcation was used in two patients, and the external iliac artery in four patients. Common and external iliac artery continuity was restored with Dacron prostheses. Forty-three patients with 47 autografts have been followed up from one to ten years (average three years). Hypertension was cured or improved in 96% of the patients. Serial follow-up arteriograms as late as ten years after surgery have been obtained in 50% of the patients. No late occlusions occurred. Slight autograft dilation occurred seven years postoperatively in one child. Normal growth of the autograft was exhibited in the remaining five children. No evidence of dilation, aneurysm formation, or stenosis appeared in any other grafts, although one patient developed a new lesion distal to her graft.