Unusual cause of claudication

A 73-year-old man had disabling right calf claudication. Angiography showed a superficial femoral artery occlusion and a tight stenosis of the right common femoral artery (Fig. 1a). The patient was offered a femoro-popliteal bypass and femoral endarterectomy. At operation, the common femoral artery contained the sheath from an angioplasty catheter (Fig. 1b). It transpired he had an angioplasty 11 years previously where degloving of the balloon catheter was recorded; however, no action had been taken.