ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION A patient can be characterized as a “complex” patient either by the complex morphology of his vascular disease, as described in the different chapters of this book, or by the different unfavorable medical comorbidities. Both factors are responsible for an increased complication rate in such complex patients. Complex morphological features often lead to a longer duration of an intervention, even with an experienced interventionist, and each prolonged intervention can be associated with adverse events. Otherwise, vascular or nonvascular comorbidities can in most cases be identified easily by history and preinterventional examination of the patient, and this enables effective risk evaluation. The main goal should then be to reduce the overall peri-and postinterventional risk of the patient by adequate treatment, which is most often pharmacological.
