Procedure Offers Hope for Peripheral Artery Disease

SATURDAY, April 2, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- People with severe peripheral artery disease -- some of them facing amputation -- may be helped by a specialized type of angioplasty that can restore blood flow in long sections of blocked arteries, according to a new study.

Called subintimal angioplasty, the procedure is performed in the wall of the artery in order to create a new clear channel that bypasses the blocked area. Sometimes a stent is used to keep the new channel open. Traditional angioplasty clears the blocked section of artery.

The study, presented Saturday at the annual scientific meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology, in New Orleans, included 79 people facing amputation of a foot or leg due to chronically reduced blood flow in a limb. Many of these patients already displayed tissue loss from this lack of blood flow, as well as pain that occurred even when they weren't walking.

Subintimal angioplasty was used to treat long segments of small blood vessels in the legs and feet. The procedure was 100 percent successful in reestablishing straight line blood flow to the feet, the study reported.

"This study shows that we can treat very severe peripheral arterial disease in the smallest vessels, even those with long lesions, with subintimal angioplasty and stenting, potentially saving these patients from amputation," study lead author and interventional radiologist Dr. David Spinosa, of Fairfax Radiology, in Virginia, said in a prepared statement.

"This finding is significant because patients with severe critical limb ischemia typically have poor wound healing and increased risk of infection following bypass surgery in the leg," Spinosa said. "Subintimal angioplasty can offer a less invasive treatment in both patients who are candidates for bypass surgery and in those who may not be."

More information

The American Heart Association has more about peripheral artery disease.