Drug-eluting stents for infrapopliteal arterial disease in the setting of critical limb ischemia

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease is increasingly prevalent with disease presentations ranging from the asymptomatic patient to the patient with an ischemic or threatened lower extremity. The role of the vascular specialist treating the peripheral artery disease patient is to create or maintain straight-line or uninterrupted blood flow to the extremities in order to preserve patient mobility and the ability of the leg to heal in the setting of trauma or infection. Although autologous-vein surgical bypass grafting has long been viewed as the first-line treatment, endovascular approaches have become increasingly popular owing to technological advances, including the advent of drug-eluting stents. The angiographic and clinical results including symptom improvement, wound healing, limb salvage rates, cost considerations and current ongoing clinical research will be discussed.

Keywords::

• cost
• drug-eluting stents
• infrapopliteal
• peripheral artery disease

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Robert Lookstein is a paid consultant for Medrad Interventional and receives honoraria for speaking and teaching activities from Cordis Cardiac and Vascular Institute. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.