Spontaneous recanalisation of the superficial femoral artery following angioplasty of the femoral artery in a patient with disseminated atherosclerosis--a case report

We present a case of a 51-year-old male with multivessel coronary artery disease and disseminated peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who underwent coronary angioplasty, followed by angioplasty with stent implantation of the left superficial iliac artery and right femoral artery. Thirty days later the patient was admitted for elective angioplasty of the previously closed superficial right femoral artery; however, angiography showed that the artery was patent with a residual stenosis which narrowed the vessel lumen by 10%. We believe that spontaneous recanalisation of this artery was caused by multiple factors, including cessation of smoking, physical training, pharmacological therapy and previous angioplasty of the right femoral artery.