title: [Surgical treatment of obliterating arteriopathies of the lower limbs in the aged].
abstract: The Authors review 86 cases, aged over 70, needing surgical treatment because of atherosclerotic obstructive disease of the lower limb, stage III-IV. 35 patients underwent thigh amputation with 14% mortality in the early post-operative period (30 days) and 32% in the late post-operative period, considered up to 6 months. For 38 patients who underwent a revascularisation procedure mortality resulted 8% in the 30 post-operative days and 10% at 6 months. Escluding the aorto-iliac reconstructions through a trans-peritoneal approach, the overall mortality is limited to 3,2%. A major amputation was avoided in 76% of patients who underwent a revascularisation. On the base of their results the Authors discuss the indications of direct surgery in treatment of advanced ischemic lesions in elderly patients concluding that a surgical correction should be always considered in the aim of avoiding or limiting the amputation. In these high-risk elderly patients the extra-peritoneal aorto-iliac reconstructive technique must be preferred together with extraanatomical femoro-femoral or axillo-femoral by-passes.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000671:Amputation, Surgical; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D001162:Arteriosclerosis Obliterans / Q000601:surgery*; D001166:Arteriovenous Shunt, Surgical; D001366:Axillary Artery / Q000601:surgery; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D005260:Female; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007083:Iliac Artery / Q000601:surgery; D007866:Leg / Q000098:blood supply; D008297:Male; D011150:Popliteal Artery / Q000601:surgery; D013562:Sympathectomy; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000601:surgery*
vernacular_title: La terapia chirurgica delle arteriopatie obliteranti degli arti inferiori nel vecchio.