Distal Cuff Occlusion: A Novel, Simple Approach for Distal Embolic Protection in Peripheral Vascular Intervention.

AIM: To evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and safety of the cuff-occlusion method for distal embolic protection in peripheral artery disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: We evaluated 61 patients who underwent peripheral vascular intervention (PVI) for infrainguinal lesion at a single center where a blood pressure cuff occlusion method for distal embolic protection was utilized during the procedure. Primary endpoint included incidence of distal embolization, acute limb ischemia, or emergency limb amputation. Safety endpoints were freedom from bleeding, vessel perforation, or dissection. Lesion location was in the superficial femoral artery in 39% of cases and popliteal and infrapopliteal in 61% of patients. Procedural success was achieved in 98.4% of patients and 1 patient had distal embolization. There was no bleeding or perforation or major flow-limiting vessel dissection. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the cuff-occlusion strategy was feasible and safe for protection form distal embolization in PVI. Further study is required to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this novel method compared with existing devices for distal protection.

Duke Scholars

Author Rajendra H. Mehta Medicine, Cardiology