Abstract
Open surgeries for 11 limbs of eight patients with popliteal artery aneurysms were performed. The medial approach with the supine position was performed for only one case with obstruction of the femoral artery to the popliteal artery. All others were performed using the posterior approach with the prone position. Grafts were five prosthetic grafts, four great saphenous veins (GSV), and two small saphenous veins (SSV). Preoperatively, patients had mapping of the GSV and SSV on the skin with duplex ultrasonography. GSV or SSV harvesting was done with the prone position in all cases of the posterior approach. Endoscopic GSV harvesting was performed in three cases. A case with bilateral prosthetic grafts soon seceded from the follow-up. One prosthetic graft was occluded 7 days postoperatively in the case of chronic obstruction. Other grafts were patent and the longest observation period was 3376 days. We assured that open surgeries as treatment for popliteal artery aneurysms had excellent results. Among them, we had an impression that if we choose the proper cases, using SSV or endoscopic GSV harvesting with the prone position may be meaningful to the point that the surgery could be completed within the S-shaped incision of the popliteal fossa.
