Endovascular stents in arterial injury after radiotherapy

Summary

We evaluated preliminary success and patency of stenting for the treatment of radiation—induced arterial diseases. Thirteen stents were placed in 8 patients to treat occlusion (n = 3), aneurysm (n = l), residual stenosis (n = 2), multiple stenoses (n = 1), and delayed restenosis after previous balloon angioplasty (n = l). Interventional procedure was successfully performed in 8 patients for their arterial lesions after radiotherapy. Six patients underwent interventional procedure once or twice. Two patients underwent PTA 4 times. Five of these patients demonstrated primary patency with relief of clinical symptoms with a mean follow-up of 2 years (range: 8–60 months). Clinical improvement was noted in the other patients. Our results suggest that stent placement by single or multiple techniques may have immediate effect on arterial lesions caused by radiation and can be considered as a therapeutic option of choice in these cases.