Summary: Critical Limb Ischemia

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Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the end stage of peripheral artery disease that results from the continued thickening of an artery’s inner lining. In peripheral artery disease, plaque-buildups usually cause obstructions that narrow the artery, leading to a decrease in blood flow to the body’s extremities, specifically the hands, legs, and feet (Hyperarts, 2017). Consequently, CLI patients experience severe pain because of this reduction in circulation. In addition to rest-pain many patients face, CLI can also cause sores and ulcers in the skin of the area receiving less blood flow, increasing the pain CLI patients experience daily. Not only does CLI cause chronic excruciating pain, this condition puts patients at a higher risk for cardiovascular events. Patients must seek medical therapy to treat critical limb ischemia because the condition does not resolve itself over time and it requires endovascular or surgical intervention (Teraa, Conte, Moll, & Verhaar, 2016). The most common types of CLI treatments physicians recommend fall into the revascularization category, a group of treatments that improve blood flow by attempting to resolve or remove obstructions in the artery. Currently, the two most popular forms of revascularization are endovascular intervention and surgical intervention (Fu et al., 2015). …show more content…

This procedure is popular because it is less invasive and requires less recovery time than bypass surgery (Sharma, Farber, & Menard, n.d.). In angioplasty, a catheter guides a balloon and stent through the artery to the blockage. Once the stent is in place, the physician or surgeon expands the balloon, which causes the stent to expand and push against the walls of the artery, widening the blood vessel and increasing blood flow through the

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