Elsevier

Journal of Vascular Surgery

Volume 64, Issue 3, September 2016, Pages 638-647
Journal of Vascular Surgery

Clinical research study
From the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery
Heparin-bonded expanded polytetrafluoroethylene femoropopliteal bypass grafts outperform expanded polytetrafluoroethylene grafts without heparin in a long-term comparison

Presented at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery, Cancun, Mexico, January 20-23, 2016.
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Objective

Expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) grafts have become an acceptable prosthetic alternative to autologous vein for infrainguinal arterial reconstructions. Recently, heparin bonding to the graft's luminal surface has been used as an adjunctive method of improving graft patency. We retrospectively evaluated a prospective experience with heparin-bonded ePTFE (HePTFE) vs the results of a prior experience with standard ePTFE (SePTFE) to compare patency rates in above-knee (AK) and below-knee (BK) femoropopliteal bypass through the 5-year follow-up.

Methods

Prosthetic femoropopliteal bypasses performed by our four-surgeon group were constructed using 6-mm SePTFE grafts before August 2007. Subsequently, all such bypasses were constructed using 6-mm HePTFE (Propaten graft; W. L. Gore & Associates, Flagstaff, Ariz). The surgical technique used in all cases throughout the study was similar irrespective of surgeon or graft material. Loss of primary patency was defined by graft thrombosis; duplex scan confirmed graft failure. Descriptive estimation of patency rates was carried out using standard Kaplan–Meier methods. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyze relationships between predictors and time to loss of patency.

Results

There were 192 AK (87 Propaten, 105 SePTFE) and 60 BK (42 Propaten, 18 SePTFE) grafts. Overall primary patency for Propaten was statistically better than SePTFE at years 1 (93.6% vs 84.2%), 2 (79.7% vs 73.8%), 3 (79.7% vs 69.5%), 4 (74.5% vs 59.9%) and 5 (74.5% vs 56.2%; log-rank test, P = .036). Five-year primary patency was superior for Propaten AK grafts (85.2% vs 59.3%; log-rank test, P = .028) and for Propaten BK grafts (59.6% vs 0.0/undeterminable; log-rank test, P = .016). Variables significantly associated with loss of patency for Propaten and SePTFE were claudication (hazard ratio [HR], 0.41), age (HR, 0.95), isolated popliteal artery (HR, 3.1-4.4), and ankle-brachial index after the procedure (HR, 0.10). Controlling for conduit effect, clopidogrel use did not significantly affect patency (P = .076). No grafts were associated with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

Conclusions

These data show that the Propaten HePTFE graft offered significantly better long-term patency over the SePTFE graft, suggesting Propaten as the prosthetic graft of choice for bypasses to the femoropopliteal artery when autologous vein is unavailable or inappropriate.

Cited by (0)

This work was funded in part by the Mote Vascular Foundation, Inc and Sarasota Vascular Specialists. W. L. Gore provided funding for statistical analysis and provided funds for hiring Medwrite Medical Communications LLC for assistance in writing the manuscript. W. L. Gore had no involvement in study design, collection of data, analysis and interpretation of data nor the decision to publish the manuscript.

Author conflict of interest: R.H.S. is on the speakers bureau for W. L. Gore.

The editors and reviewers of this article have no relevant financial relationships to disclose per the JVS policy that requires reviewers to decline review of any manuscript for which they may have a conflict of interest.