ABSTRACT: Objectives. To evaluate the clinical utility of 3 Fr infrapopliteal intervention in critical limb ischemia (CLI) patients with isolated infrapopliteal artery disease (IPD). Background. There is considerable scope for the miniaturization of infrapopliteal intervention in the clinical field. Methods. In this study, 3 Fr infrapopliteal intervention was performed in a total of 11 consecutive patients and limbs, selected by operator judgment on the basis of the clinical and angiographical conditions of the patients. The 3 Fr sheath was removed immediately after the completion of the proce

Vascular complications during endovascular intervention remain an important cause of the morbidity and mortality associated with the procedure. Risk factors for vascular complications include older age, location of the arteriotomy site and the size of the arterial sheath.1,2 The ability to reduce the size of the access sheath and still allow insertion of vascular devices is therefore an important aspect of endovascular intervention. While numerous endovascular devices have emerged for use for infrapopliteal intervention, balloon angioplasty remains the mainstay of therapy.3 Angioplasty balloon

ABSTRACT: Background. Advances in the safety of percutaneous coronary interventions have been significant in recent years. The goal of this study was to evaluate any decline in the age-adjusted in-hospital mortality rate in patients undergoing multivessel percutaneous coronary intervention (MVPCI) using a very large database from 1988 to 2004 in the United States. Method. The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was utilized to calculate the age-adjusted mortality rate for MVPCI from 1988 to 2004 in patients over the age of 40 years retrospectively. Specific ICD-9-CM codes for MVPCI wer