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The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the results of vascular operations based on the RaK prostheses, with a particular attention paid to their long-term patency. The study included 105 patients who were operated on in the period from 1992 to 1996. Vascular surgery was performed in the aortofemoral area and the underlying diagnoses were Leriche syndrome, asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm, iliac artery stenosis or occlusion and symptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysm. During the mean follow-up time of 96 months (range 28-144), 8 patients (7.6 %) were lost to follow-up and 23 patients (21.9 %) died. At 12, 36, 60 and 120 months after surgery, the prostheses were patent in 99 %, 98 %, 93 % and 89 % of the patients, respectively. It is concluded that the RaK collagen prosthesis is the device of high quality and parameters comparable with the other types of knitted vascular prostheses currently used (Tab. 3, Fig. 4, Ref. 17).

Pedal bypass (arterial reconstruction with distal anastomosis on the dorsal pedal artery (DPA) or in the submalleolar portion of the posterior tibial artery) is now considered as a standard method of revascularisation in critically ischaemic limb with obliteration of the crural arterial system. While a number of studies in large cohorts have proved the success of this method in saving limbs with chronic critical ischaemia, only few papers report the pedal bypass as an urgent intervention. In this study, the authors describe 3 cases where urgent pedal bypass saved the limb threatened by an acute ischaemia (Fig. 3, Ref. 12).

In 1990, the vascular prosthesis of RaK type (collagen-impregnated knitted prosthesis), produced by the Research Institute of Hosiery in Brno, was introduced into clinical practice. In 1998, we published our experience with this type of prosthesis in form of a clinical evaluating study performed according to the methods of the EN 540 European Norm. Now we inform about the results of the studied group followed during 3 years. The long-term patency of the prosthesis in the aortic-phemoral part is 88.8%; the incidence of infection of the vascular prosthesis in our group studied in the 3-year period is 2.5%. Thus we can say that even long-term results confirm our previous good experience with this vascular prosthesis produced in Brno. (Tab. 8, Fig. 1, Ref. 11.)