Intermittent Claudication Treatment Michigan
CLAUDICATION
Doctors also refer to narrowing of the leg arteries as intermittent claudication. They also use the broader term peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PAD stands for vascular problems in the peripheral parts of the body: arms, legs and feet. More severe is the critical limb Ischemia.
Intermittent Claudication / Pad
Symptoms of Intermittent Claudication
Claudication develop slowly. At first you don’t notice much of it, because the legs still receive enough oxygen at rest. Gradually you get complaints when walking, cycling or running. The muscles become weak from lack of blood and oxygen. You will notice this by a stabbing pain and cramps in the legs. By standing still, for example in front of a shop window, the pain disappears. The condition is therefore also called ‘shop window legs’.
Other symptoms of poor circulation in the legs are cold feet, less sensation in the legs or toenails growing less quickly.
Critical limb Ischemia
Critical limb Ischemia is a condition in which too little amount of blood can flow through the arteries to the feet. You then have pain in the foot or toes, while you are just sitting or lying still. It is often the case that this pain is most noticeable when you are lying in bed.
Symptoms
The most common consequences of critical ischemia are reduced skin circulation, cold feet, nail abnormalities, reduced hair growth on the toes and lower legs and poorly healing skin wounds. Sometimes the foot is also a bit swollen.
Intermittent Claudication Treatment
Always, you will get advice for a healthy lifestyle.
Depending on the severity, often gait therapy is effective. Intensive walking training increases blood flow to the smallest vessels in the legs. This reduces the pain complaints.
Sometimes medications are needed for high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, or diabetes. In addition, anti-clotting drugs are prescribed to prevent blood vessel occlusion.
In severe cases surgery is necessary.
Dotter and Stent Treatment For Intermittent Claudication
- The vascular surgeon injects a special contrast medium through a catheter into your bloodstream. The contrast dye allows the doctor to see your arteries on an X-ray monitor.
- An instrument with a small balloon on the end of it is inserted through an artery in your leg or arm and advanced through the arteries until the narrowed area is reached.
- The balloon is inflated, pushing the plaque against the artery wall; this dilates the opening in the artery, allowing blood to flow again.
- The balloon is then deflated and removed from the body.
Angioplasty treatment may be not sufficient
: the blood still cannot flow properly after the treatment. Then a stent can be placed. A stent is a kind of metal ballpoint pen. It gives the vessel wall extra support and prevents the blood vessel from springing back after angioplasty.
Bypass surgery For Intermittent Claudication
Sometimes also angioplasty or stent placement isn’t sufficient, due to a very extensive narrowing or that the narrowing is in a place where a dotter cannot be performed. Then bypass surgery may be an option.
Then the vascular surgeon for Intermittent Claudication Treatment Near Me creates a bridging (bypass) for the occluded or severely narrowed artery. The upper connection of the bypass will be made at the level of the groin to the femoral artery. For the bottom connection, a duplex examination or angiography is used in advance to locate a site in the blood vessel below the closure. This can be above or below the knee.