Improving the Level of Amputation of the Lower Extremity after Therapeutic Endovascular Intervention for Patients with Critical Limb Ischemia

Lower extremity amputations are increasingly frequent in people with arterial insufficiency, becoming an important public health problem in Iraq and worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of revascularization of the lower limb with critical ischemia by peripheral angioplasty on improving the patient's life.

This experimental study was conducted in patients with lower limb ischemia in Al-Shaheed Ghazzi Al-Hariri Hospital for Surgical Specialties in Baghdad, Iraq, from October 2019 to October 2020. One hundred sixteen patients with arterial insufficiency were selected by the purposeful sampling method. A group of patients (55 cases) was selected for peripheral therapeutic intervention. The Chi-Square and Fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis.

There was a clear improvement in the level of amputation after treatment. High levels of amputation were needed for the control group who did not have a therapeutic intervention, and most of them had amputations above the knee (86.9%).

Peripheral intervention has an important role in improving the level of amputation in patients with critical limb ischemia of the lower extremities and should consider before primary amputation in selected patients.