ABSTRACT

In recent years a dramatic increase in the number of percutaneous transluminal interventions has occurred. As a result of technologic advances and the increasing number of training centers, catheter-based interventions are performed in more extensively diseased arterial segments than has been carried out in the past. As vessel wall injury is the unavoidable consequence of endovascular treatment, more complex interventions go along with an increased thrombotic risk.1 Today, it is the supplementary aggressive medical therapy (Table 6a.1) that provides good clinical patency even in complex peripheral interventions, but at the cost of bleeding events. The following review gives the reader an overview on current guidelines, opinions, and possible complications due to antiplatelet, antithrombotic, and anticoagulant agents and their management.