Randomised trial shows benefit of heparin bonded PTFE graft vs. PTFE alone in patients with critical limb ischaemia

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A recently presented multicentre, randomised, controlled trial shows that Propaten, which harnesses the anticoagulant properties of heparin directly at the luminal surface of the graft, significantly increased primary and secondary patency in patients with critical limb ischaemia. Researchers said, “the worse the clinical situation is, the more efficient the propaten graft becomes.”

JS Lindholt, Vascular Research Unit, Viborg Hospital, Denmark presented the results of the Propaten trial – one year patency of luminal heparin bonded PTFE vascular prostheses compared to ordinary pure PTFE vascular prostheses – a randomised controlled multicentre trial at the 2010 ESVS annual meeting in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

 

In the trial, 11 centres enrolled 569 patients with critical limb ischaemia having a planned femoral (fem-fem) bypass or femoropopliteal bypass (fem-pop) between autumn 2006 and January 2009. Acute ischaemic patients, and patients allergic to heparin were excluded from the study.

 

“The Propaten graft kept its promises from the prospective studies but modern bypassing has improved reducing the expected benefit of Propaten. However, Propaten significantly increased primary and secondary patency by 36 and 40% respectively, reducing the overall risk of primary graft failure by 36%, increasing to 50% in cases with critical ischaemia,” Lindholt said.