Iliofemoral Thrombectomy For Venous Occlusion

Abstract

<h3>Introduction</h3> VENOUS thrombectomy, employed by Leriche over 35 years ago,²was performed infrequently in this country until Mahorner emphasized its value in 1957.⁵DeWeese,¹Haler,⁴and others have more recently reported their experience with this procedure. We have reviewed our experience with this procedure during the past 6½ years to emphasize certain factors in management which have not been sufficiently stressed or which may vary from the practice in other clinics. <h3>Material</h3> Iliofemoral thrombectomy was carried out in 48 patients; one reoperation was performed after two months, making a total of 49 procedures. Twenty-seven operations were done on the left side; there were no simultaneous bilateral procedures. Thirty-one patients were male, reflecting the contribution of a predominantly male Veterans Administration Hospital service. Their age averaged 54 years in contrast to the female of 43 years. The entire group averaged 50 years with extremes of 10 months