Editor's Choice – A Prospective Study to Evaluate Complete Wound Healing and Limb Salvage Rates After Angiosome Targeted Infrapopliteal Balloon Angioplasty in Patients with Critical Limb Ischaemia

Abstract

To evaluate complete wound healing and limb salvage rates in patients with critical limb ischaemia (CLI) with concurrent foot ulceration/gangrene who underwent angiosome targeted infrapopliteal balloon angioplasty. This was a prospective observational study. In total, 212 patients who underwent successful infrapopliteal balloon angioplasty to assist wound healing and achieve limb salvage were included from June 2014 to March 2016. Propensity score matching was developed to compare complete wound healing, 1 year amputation free survival (AFS), and limb salvage rates between the two study groups (direct revascularisation [DR] and indirect revascularisation [IR]). Direct flow to the foot wounds based on the angiosome principle was achieved in 117 legs (55.2%) versus 95 legs (44.8%) that represented the IR group. Seventy-three matched pairs were obtained to minimise intergroup differences in baseline characteristics. Twelve months after angioplasty, the complete wound healing rates were 80.8% and 63.0% (p=.02), AFS rates were 72.6% and 61.6% (p=.164), and limb salvage rates were 90.4% and 82.2% (p=.148) in the DR and IR groups, respectively. This study suggests that the complete wound healing rate is better when the target foot lesion receives direct perfusion following the angiosome concept, whereas limb salvage and AFS rates were not significantly different among the DR and IR groups.