OBJECTIVE Popliteal artery entrapment and adventitial cystic disease are the main causes of claudication in young patients. Adventitial cystic disease is a rare vascular pathology mostly affecting the popliteal artery but other localisations have been reported. Diagnosis and therapeutic management of adventitial cystic disease and particularly percutaneous aspiration are presented. METHODS The authors report six cases (four men and two women; mean age: 55) of CAD of the popliteal artery (n = 4) and unusual cases in the femoral artery (n = 1) and in the femoral vein (n = 1) explored by sonography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and angiography. Five patients were initially treated by CT-guided aspiration and one with endoprosthesis. RESULTS Sonography, CT or MRI are more useful to establish the diagnosis because these techniques can directly visualize the arterial wall. All these patients but one have been treated by percutaneous method with a good functional outcome but surgical intervention was necessary for two of them because of cysts recurrence. CONCLUSIONS Our experience suggests that percutaneous CT-guided aspiration is the first treatment option for small cysts but close long-term follow-up is necessary to detect recurrence.