Peripheral Vascular Disease Treatment in Guntur

What is peripheral vascular disease?

Peripheral arterial disease is the narrowing of the arteries that supply the legs, caused by atherosclerosis — the same plaque process that affects the coronary and carotid arteries. Muscle that receives too little blood cramps when it is asked to work, which is why the pain comes on at a repeatable distance and eases within minutes of stopping.

It matters for two reasons. Left alone, a proportion of patients progress to rest pain, ulceration and threatened limb loss. And its presence signals a raised risk of heart attack and stroke, so treatment always includes protecting those territories, not just the leg.

Symptoms to watch for

• Cramping pain in the calf, thigh or buttock brought on by walking and relieved by rest (claudication)
• A steadily shortening walking distance
• Cold, pale feet, or feet that go dusky when lowered
• Pain in the forefoot at night, relieved by hanging the leg out of bed
• Slow-healing cuts, ulcers or blackened areas on the toes
• Loss of leg hair, shiny skin and thickened toenails
• Weak or absent pulses in the foot

How it is diagnosed

Investigation is chosen to answer a specific question rather than as a blanket screen. For peripheral vascular disease that usually means:

• Pulse examination and ankle-brachial index (ABI) measurement
• Treadmill or walking-distance assessment where the diagnosis is uncertain
• Arterial duplex ultrasound to localise the narrowing
• CT or MR angiography to plan intervention
• Digital subtraction angiography at the time of endovascular treatment
• Screening for diabetes, lipid disorder, hypertension and smoking-related risk

Treatment options at Siva Sakthi

Which of these applies to you depends on what the assessment shows. The options are discussed with you, including what each involves and what recovery looks like.

• Risk-factor and medical therapyStopping smoking, controlling diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol, and antiplatelet treatment reduce both progression and cardiovascular risk. This underpins every other treatment.
• Supervised exercise therapyStructured walking programmes reliably increase pain-free walking distance and are recommended before intervention in claudication.
• Angioplasty and stentingA balloon opens the narrowed segment through a puncture in the groin, with a stent placed where the artery needs support.
• Atherectomy and drug-coated balloonsSelected lesions are treated with plaque removal or drug-coated devices to reduce re-narrowing.
• Bypass surgeryFor long occlusions, a graft carries blood around the blocked segment using a vein or a synthetic conduit.
• Wound care and surveillanceUlcers are managed alongside revascularisation, with duplex follow-up to detect restenosis early.

Common questions