Atherectomy and Drug-Coated Balloon Angioplasty in Treatment of Long Infrapopliteal Lesions

There is both a poor life expectancy and a poor prognosis of limb salvage in those patience with stenoses or occlusions of the lower limb (TASC Consensus). To date only a small number of these patients could be helped through medication or surgery. In fact within the first year following diagnosis of a critical limb ischemia 25% of patients lose their leg and 90% have to undergo a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) or bypass surgery. Using PTA for treatment of long infrapopliteal artery lesions, stenosis reoccurs in 70% to 80% of cases 3 months after index procedure. Even the use of drug-eluting balloons leads only to 1-year primary patency rates up to 30%. The primary objective of this study is to compare the performance of atherectomy followed by a drug-coated balloon angioplasty over drug-coated balloon angioplasty alone in long de-novo infrapopliteal lesions in a prospective, single-center, randomized clinical trial.