Endovascular treatment of diabetic feet

Objective: To determine the clinical efficacy of interventional therapy for patients with diabetic feet (DF). Methods: Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) was performed on fifty-two patients (sixty-five lower limbs) with DF. The patients were selected for percutaneous endovascular balloon angioplasty (PTA group), balloon angioplasty and stent implantation (stent group) or transfemoral artery local drug perfusion (perfusion group) treatment according to the location of stenosis or occlusion in the iliac artery, femoral artery or in the arteries below the knee. The procedural success rates, complications and clinical improvement were analyzed. Results: Sixty-five lower extremity arterial stenosis/occlusive lesions were confirmed by DSA. The lesion length ranged from 1.3 to 25.6 cm. The patients with stenosis in the iliac arteries (19), femoral arteries (31), below-knee arteries (15) were divided into PTA group (20), stent group (20) and perfusion group (16). Procedural success rate was 100%. No severe complications were observed. The ankle-brachial index increased from 0.40 ± 0.16 pre-operatively to 0.69 ± 0.15 at the seventh day after treatment. Conclusion: Interventional treatment is safe and reliable in patients with diabetic feet. The approach should be modified according to the location of the vascular stenosis. (authors)