Computed Tomographic Angiography of the Peripheral Vasculature - Role & Applications in Vascular Surgery
G. Szendro1, D. Lumelsky2, A. Klimov2, I. Faingersh3
The department of vascular surgery Soroka Medical Center, Ben-Gurion university Beer-Sheva1, the department of radiology Ha'Emek Medical Center Afula2 and the department of surgery "B" Ha'Emek Medical Center Afula3
Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) is a relatively new diagnostic modality in the field of vascular surgery. Despite being new it has already been introduced into a wide range of diagnostic applications in this field and in many cases it can precede or replace the conventional intra-arterial angiography. During a 12 month period between 1.8.98 and 1.8.99 sixty five peripheral arterial imaging scans were performed using a CT Twin - 2 helical scanner (Spiral Twin Flash., Elscint, Israel) with a 100% technical success rate and no complications at all. Twelve patients (18.5%) were operated upon and 20 (30.7%) underwent endovascular procedures with full intra-procedural agreement with the pre-operative or pre-procedure CTA findings. Despite possible pitfalls and a few disadvantages the technique carries major benefits and significant advantages to both the patient and the clinician. Therefore we recommend considering CTA as a first line diagnostic modality whenever peripheral vasculature has to be demonstrated whether electively or urgently and to spare the conventional angiography for selected cases only.