Limb Preservation and Vascular Health: Answering Your Top 3 Questions

The idea of undergoing an amputation is a daunting one. Not only does amputation require an ongoing recovery process for your body, but it also changes the way you may function in your day-to-day life.

So, if and when an arterial disease puts amputation on the potential horizon for you, what do you do?

Simple: You ask our team about your options for limb preservation.

What Is Limb Preservation?

Limb preservation is the process by which vascular physicians and surgeons attempt to treat a patient’s vascular disease with the goal of preventing amputation.

In most cases, limb preservation comes into the picture when a patient has developed a severe case of peripheral arterial disease, or PAD. This condition occurs when a build-up of plaque along the arterial wall — often in the lower extremities — causes the blood flow to become stagnated and/or blocked.

Symptoms of PAD may include:

• Leg pain and numbness
• Skin and toenail discoloration
• Wounds that do not heal
• Gangrene
• And more

Such blockages, if left untreated, may eventually lead to critical limb ischemia (CLI), wherein the blockage becomes chronic. Today, “critical limb ischemia is found in 12% of the U.S. adult population,” studies show.

Does Limb Preservation Work?

While PAD and CLI have historically led to lower limb amputation, the continued progression of modern treatment techniques has effectively paved the way for an increase in overall limb preservation.

“There are … a variety of therapeutic approaches to patients with limb-threatening ischemia,” research shows, with approximately 50% undergoing revascularization procedures, like angioplasty, wherein a physician inserts a catheter and inflates a small balloon to reopen the artery for improved blood flow.

And of those patients who receive angioplasty? Studies have found that patients’ success rates may be as high as 90% overall.

What’s more, when other treatments are used in conjunction with angioplasty — like stenting — those results are even longer lasting.

Who Do I Call About Limb Preservation?

“Compared with amputation, revascularization is more cost-effective and is associated with better perioperative morbidity and mortality,” according to a study published by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). “Limb preservation should be the goal in most patients with critical limb ischemia.”

And that’s why, here at Vascular Institute of the Midwest, we specialize in guiding our patients toward limb preservation and optimized long-term wellness.

Not only do we offer angioplasty, atherectomy, stenting, and a variety of other venous and arterial services located in one comfortable outpatient center, but we also provide FREE vein screenings to get you started.

Affordable answers and options are a mere call away. To get started, contact us today by calling 563-324-3818!