Aim: The present study investigated the effects of additional cilostazol administration on the 12-month risk of restenosis after femoropopliteal heparin-bonded stent graft implantation.

Methods: This study was a sub-analysis of the Viabahn stent graft placement for femoropopliteal disease reQUIring endovaScular tHerapy (VANQUISH) study, which was a prospective multicenter study investigating patients who received Viabahn stent graft (W.L. Gore & Associates, Flagstaff, AZ, USA) and dual-antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and a thienopyridine. The comparison of clinical outcomes between subgroups with and without cilostazol treatment were performed using the propensity score-matching method to minimize the intergroup differences in baseline characteristics.

Results: Cilostazol-treated patients had a lower 12-month proportion of restenosis than cilostazol-free patients (8.2% vs 27.3%). The odds ratio of cilostazol for the 12-month restenosis was 0.27 [95% CI, 0.08 to 0.97] (p=0.045). Furthermore, the cumulative incidence rates of surgical reconstruction, target lesion revascularization and acute thrombotic occlusion (p values by the log-rank test) were 2.6% versus 1.8% (P=0.43), 5.3% versus 20.5% (P=0.067), and 0.0% versus 11.8% (P=0.0499), respectively. The rates of surgical reconstruction and target lesion revascularization (TLR) were not significantly different between both groups.

Conclusions: Our study revealed the clinical impact of additional cilostazol treatment on the risk of restenosis and acute thrombotic occlusion following heparin-bonded stent graft implantation, while TLR and surgical reconstruction were not significantly different.