Peripheral Vascular Surgery
and Endovascular Revascularization

Peripheral arterial disease is a narrowing of blood vessels characterized by atherosclerosis of the lower extremities restricting blood flow. Peripheral arterial disease affects 12 million people in the United States. Greater than half of patients with peripheral arterial disease have no symptoms. However, the remainder may present with pains in their calves when walking or in extreme cases, develop pain in the foot even at rest. Inadequate perfusion to the lower extremity can also result in a non-healing wound in the food which can lead to foot or leg amputation.

At our Heart and Vascular Center, we perform physiologic assessment of the amount of blood flow of the legs on patients with peripheral arterial disease. If a surgical or endovascular intervention is warrented, we use non-invasive testing, with ultrasound, magnetic rsonance imagin, CT angiography or direct intravascular angiography.

For patients with critical limb ischemia or non-healing foot wounds, the method of revascularization of the affected limb is dependent upon several factors. Among the most important are aindications for surgery, the patients’ risk factor, the location of the blockages and availability of vein. In many cases, when open surgery would be ill advised or not technically possible, they use catheter-based techniques, which can results in significant improvement of blood flow.