Chronic critical lower-limb ischemia: prospective trial of angioplasty with 1-36 months follow-up.

To determine the utility of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in the treatment of chronic critical lower-limb ischemia, a prospective study of 103 consecutive patients (117 limbs) was performed. Patients underwent PTA for a total of 209 lesions in the iliac (n = 4), femoropopliteal (n = 121), and infrapopliteal (n = 84) arteries and were followed up for 1-36 months (mean, 12 months). The primary technical success rate was 92% for stenosis and 80% for occlusion. Survival analysis with the Kaplan-Meier method revealed 1-, 2-, and 3-year limb salvage rates of 56%, 49%, and 49%, respectively. The following factors correlated favorably with limb salvage in Cox multiple regression analyses: a small number of diseased lower-limb vessels (one to five vs six to eight) and treated lesions per limb (one or two vs three to five), achieved peripheral runoff (one to three patent calf vessels vs none), and an occlusion as the successfully treated target lesion (instead of stenosis).