Endovascular Treatment of Popliteal Artery Occlusion Caused by a Ruptured Supera Interwoven Nitinol Stent

The Supera peripheral stent system has a woven wire design that may confer a potential advantage and has higher resistive radial strength of traditional stents, which gives it the ability to avoid kinking. Because a stent is a permanent implant in the target vessels and they would be subjected to a wide variety of torsion, compression, and stress, a rupture is not surprising. Only three cases of ruptured Supera stents have been published in literature. We present a case of P2 popliteal segment thrombosis secondary to Supera stent fracture. A 51-year-old male patient presented with lifestyle-limiting intermittent claudication after 6 months of popliteal recanalization and Supera stent implantation. The computed tomography angiography demonstrated a popliteal artery occlusion secondary to stent fracture. The lesion was satisfactorily treated by endovascular recanalization and with a new Supera stent deployment. The duplex examination after 3 and 6 months demonstrated stent’s permeability, and the plain anteroposterior and lateral radiographs did not reveal new stent fractures. Our data suggested that Supera stents are not free of fractures during follow-up and their treatment depends on the type of fracture, with the possibility for endovascular treatment in type III fractures.