FRAMED Infrainguinal Venous Bypass Versus Conventional Autologous Bypass Trial

Patients presenting to Vascular Surgical Units are usually multimorbid with increased cardiopulmonary risk. Autologous venous bypass is indicated in certain situations despite the longer duration of surgery. Optimizing patency has been an important goal since many years. Reconstruction problems are often based on intimal hyperplasia, which can be reduced via covering of the harvested vein as seen in previous studies.

This clinical trial will be conducted at our Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Surgery at the University Hospital of Salzburg. Patients will be randomized into one of the two treatment options, which are a plain venous conduit or a by mesh covered venous conduit. During this clinical trial, the first follow-up will take place after 6 weeks; this corresponds to the usual follow-up interval. Due to the trial, further follow-ups will take place for each of the patients after 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 2 years.

Inclusion criteria

• Age at least 18 years
• Informed consent form with signature
• Rutherford Category 3 (<200m) or chronic critical ischemia (Rutherford Category 4-6)
• Assured inflow and recipient artery.

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women
• Active infection or sepsis
• Acute ischemia
• Endovascular procedure in the region to be treated.
• Vein with outer diameter <3.5 mm or >8 mm under pressure.
• Spliced Veins.
• Known allergy to the cobalt-chromium alloy (ASTM 1058) or its components (Cobalt-Chromium-Iron-Nickel-Molybdenum).
• Vasculitis
• Coagulopathy
• Radiation therapy near the anastomosis