How Is Peripheral Arterial Disease Treated?
Treatments for peripheral arterial disease (P.A.D.)
include lifestyle changes, medicines, and surgery or procedures.
The overall goals of treating P.A.D. are to reduce
symptoms, improve quality of life, and prevent complications. Treatment is
based on your signs and symptoms, risk factors, and results from a physical
exam and tests.
Lifestyle Changes
Treatment often includes making long-lasting
lifestyle changes, such as:
- Quitting smoking. Your risk for P.A.D. increases
four times if you smoke. Smoking also raises your risk for other diseases, such
as coronary
artery disease (CAD). Talk to your doctor about programs and products that
can help you quit smoking.
- Lowering blood pressure. This lifestyle change
can help you avoid the risk of
stroke,
heart
attack,
heart
failure, and
kidney disease.
- Lowering
high
blood cholesterol levels. Lowering cholesterol can delay or even reverse
the buildup of plaque in the arteries.
- Lowering blood glucose levels if you have
diabetes. A hemoglobin A1C test can show how well you have
controlled your blood sugar level over the past 3 months.
- Getting regular physical activity. Talk with your
doctor about taking part in a supervised exercise program. This type of program
has been shown to reduce P.A.D. symptoms.
Follow a healthy eating plan that’s low in
total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium (salt).
Eat more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products. If you’re
overweight
or obese, work with your doctor to create a reasonable weight-loss plan.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute’s
Therapeutic
Lifestyle Changes (TLC) and
Dietary
Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) are two examples of healthy eating
plans.
Medicines
Your doctor may prescribe medicines to:
- Lower high blood cholesterol levels and
high
blood pressure
- Thin the blood to prevent clots from forming due
to low blood flow
- Help ease leg pain that occurs when you walk or
climb stairs
Surgery or Procedures
Bypass Grafting
Your doctor may recommend bypass grafting surgery if
blood flow in your limb is blocked or nearly blocked. For this surgery, your
doctor uses a blood vessel from another part of your body or a man-made tube to
make a graft.
This graft bypasses (goes around) the blocked part
of the artery, which allows blood to flow around the blockage. This surgery
doesn’t cure P.A.D., but it may increase blood flow to the affected
limb.
Angioplasty
Your doctor may recommend
angioplasty
(AN-jee-oh-plas-tee) to restore blood flow through a narrowed or blocked
artery.
During this procedure, a catheter with a balloon or
other device on the end is inserted into a blocked artery. The balloon is then
inflated, which pushes the plaque outward against the wall of the artery. This
widens the artery and restores blood flow.
A
stent
(a small mesh tube) may be placed in the artery during angioplasty. A stent
helps keep the artery open after angioplasty is done. Some stents are coated
with medicine to help prevent blockages in the artery.
Other Types of Treatment
Researchers are studying cell and gene therapies to
treat P.A.D. However, these treatments aren’t yet available outside of
clinical trials. For more information about clinical trials, see
"Links
to Other Information About Peripheral Arterial Disease." |