Narrowed arteries in the lower limbs
Symptoms indicating the disease
Blocked or narrowed arteries cause muscle pain when walking (claudication). The pain often gets worse when you walk uphill and goes away by itself when you rest. The pain is mostly felt in the calves, but you may also feel pain in the thigh or buttock.
The arterial blood flow may be so badly limited that you even experience pain at rest (not only when walking).
In the final stage there are sometimes even non-healing wounds known as ulcers or necrosis (when tissue dies off in a specific area). At that point, an intervention to restore the circulation is urgently needed.
Tests
To make a definite diagnosis, the following tests are carried out:
Possible treatments
To find out which intervention is recommended to improve your symptoms, the vascular surgeon will request an angiogram. Possible treatments include:
- Balloon dilatation with placement of a stent
- Removing the calcium layer
- A bypass
- Your vascular surgeon may carry out an endarterectomy (removal of the calcium layer) combined with a bypass. This depends on the location and severity of the narrowed artery or the complexity involved in the operation.