Arterial reconstruction for lower limb ischaemia in Hong Kong Chinese.
BACKGROUND
Lower limb ischaemia due to peripheral arterial disease is uncommon in Chinese people, and few arterial bypass operations have been performed. The management of a consecutive series of patients who were admitted to our department with severe lower limb ischaemis between March 1990 and October 1996 is reported here.


METHODS
A total of 91 primary arterial bypass operations were performed for 83 patients (eight patients had bilateral, or two procedures). Of these, 84 operations were for foot salvage and seven operations were for debilitating claudication. There were 80 infra-inguinal bypasses, 10 of which required additional femoro-femoral crossover grafts to improve in-flow. The remaining 11 bypass procedures were performed for aorto-iliac occlusion, which included aortobifemoral bypass (5), axillobifemoral bypass (3) and cross-femoral bypass (3) grafts. There were 46 male and 37 female patients, with a median age of 70 years (36-94).


RESULTS
Six patients died (6.6%) postoperatively, all of whom were in the foot salvage group. The overall cumulative foot salvage rate and graft patency was 84 and 56%, respectively, at 5 years.


CONCLUSIONS
These results justified the use of the same aggressive approach that was adopted in Western countries for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease, which seemed to be an emerging problem in Hong Kong.
Ah Chong
A K
AK
Department of Surgery, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Chiu
K M
KM
Lo
S F
SF
Yip
A W
AW
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001158:Arteries / Q000601:surgery; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007511:Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D007866:Leg / Q000098:blood supply*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D014654:Vascular Patency