Ultrasound-guided thrombin injection for treatment of femoral artery pseudoaneurysm with concomitant AV-fistula - a retrospective single centre experience.

BACKGROUND: Increasing volume of complex percutaneous endovascular procedures in highly anticoagulated patients generate a not negligible percentage of femoral pseudoaneurysms (PSA) with concomitant arteriovenous fistulas (AVF). While ultrasound-guided thrombin injection (UGTI) is the therapy of choice for PSA, concomitant AVF is regarded as a contraindication for UGTI, as venous thromboembolism is feared. In this retrospective, register-based cohort study, we report on and evaluate the use of UGTI for the treatment of PSA with AFV.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: All patients (n = 523), who underwent UGTI for femoral PSA at the German Heart Centre Munich from January 2011 until January 2018, were retrospectively reviewed for the presence of a concomitant AVF and outcomes were recorded.

RESULTS: Forty femoral PSA/AVFs treated by UGTI were identified. The mean enddiastolic arterial-flow-velocity above the AVF, an estimate of the AVF size, was 14.61 ± 1.7 cm/sec. The Majority of patients exhibited flow-velocities < 25 cm/sec (n = 31; 77.5 %) and were on either uninterrupted oral anticoagulation (n = 32; 80 %) or dual antiplatelet therapy (n = 8). Twenty-eight (70 %) PSA/AVFs could be successfully closed by UGTI. In eight multicompartmental PSAs, partial obliteration necessitated combined treatment with manual compression, while one partial occlusion was treated by observation. There were three failures, of which two underwent covered-stent-graft-implantation and one surgical repair. One DVT (2.5 %) occurred two days after UGTI in the by far largest AVF (60 cm/sec) included in the study. Besides two late PSA recurrences treated by surgery, no other complications were observed. AVF persisted in 65 %, all of them asymptomatic. The mean follow-up was 6 ± 15.5 months.

CONCLUSIONS: UGTI appears to be a treatment option in femoral PSA/AVF, at least under oral anticoagulation in small fistulas with enddiastolic arterial-flow-velocities ≤ 25 cm/sec. However, caution is necessary in larger AVFs, which should remain a contraindication for UGTI.