What is Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)?
Peripheral Arterial Disease occurs when nutrient rich blood can not adequately get through the legs due to blockages in the arteries. When the arteries in your legs become blocked, your legs do not receive enough blood or oxygen and you may have a condition called peripheral artery disease (or PAD).
PAD can cause discomfort or pain when you walk. The pain can occur in your hips, buttocks, thighs, knees, shins, or upper feet. Leg artery disease is considered a type of peripheral arterial disease because it affects arteries that carry blood away from your heart to your limbs. You are more likely to develop PAD as you age. One in 3 people age 70 or older has PAD. Smoking or having diabetes increases your chances of developing the disease sooner.
What are the symptoms?
You may not feel any symptoms from peripheral artery disease at first. The most common symptom is intermittent claudication (IC). IC is discomfort or pain in your legs that happens when you walk and goes away when you rest. You may not always feel pain; instead you may feel a tightness, heaviness, cramping, or weakness in your leg. IC often occurs more quickly if you walk uphill or up a flight of stairs.
As the disease progresses, a person may experience symptoms of critical limb ischemia. Critical limb ischemia occurs when there is not enough blood getting to the legs even at rest. You may feel pain and discomfort even when you are not walking.
What tests will be performed?
If your physician suspects PAD, there are a number of tests that he may order. These tests include the following:
How is PAD Treated?
There are a number of ways that PAD can be treated and they depend on the severity of the disease. Lifestyle changes may need to be addressed. These include a low fat, heart healthy diet, exercise, quit smoking, manage diabetes, lower blood pressure and achieving ideal body weight. Medication is another way that a physician may choose to treat PAD. These medications are those that reduce blood clotting to minimize the chances of clots blocking your narrowed arteries.
Medication and lifestyle changes may not be enough to treat more progressive forms of PAD.
In some advanced cases of peripheral artery disease, your physician may recommend angioplasty and stenting. This procedure is not as invasive as surgery. In an angioplasty, your physician inserts a long, thin, flexible tube called a catheter into a small puncture over an artery in your groin. The catheter is guided through your arteries to the blocked area. Once in place, a special balloon, which is attached to the catheter, is inflated and deflated several times. The balloon pushes the plaque in your artery against your artery walls, widening the vessel. In some circumstances, your vascular surgeon may then place a tiny mesh-metal tube, called a stent, into the narrowed area of your artery to keep it open. The stent remains permanently in your artery. After this procedure, blood flows more freely through your artery.
Other options of treatment include bypass surgery, which is a more invasive procedure that creates an alternate flow pattern around the blockage. Endarterectomy is another treatment option for patients with more severe forms of PAD. During endarterectomy, a surgeon makes an incision into the artery at the location of the blockage and removes the plaque build up, allowing blood to flow more freely. In very extreme and rare cases of PAD, amputation may be necessary. This is a last resort treatment option.