Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec 11:1:2050312113516110.
doi: 10.1177/2050312113516110. eCollection 2013.

One of the most urgent vascular circumstances: Acute limb ischemia

Rezzan D Acar  1 , Muslum Sahin  1 , Cevat Kirma  1
Affiliations

One of the most urgent vascular circumstances: Acute limb ischemia

Rezzan D Acar et al. SAGE Open Med. .

Abstract

Acute limb ischemia is a sudden decrease in limb perfusion that threatens limb viability and requires urgent evaluation and management. Most of the causes of acute limb ischemia are thrombosis of a limb artery or bypass graft, embolism from the heart or a disease artery, dissection, and trauma. Assessment determines whether the limb is viable or irreversibly damaged. Prompt diagnosis and revascularization by means of catheter-based thrombolysis or thrombectomy and by surgery reduce the risk of limb loss and mortality. Amputation is performed in patients with irreversible damage. Despite urgent revascularization, amputation rate is 10%-15% in patients during hospitalization, mostly above the knee, and mortality within 1 year is 10%-15% due to the coexisting conditions.

Keywords: Acute limb ischemia; amputation; revascularization; thrombosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The treatment diagram of ALI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Norgren L, Hiatt WR, Dormandy JA, et al. Inter-society consensus for the management of peripheral arterial disease (TASC II). J Vasc Surg 2007; 45(Suppl.): S5–S67. - PubMed
    1. Callum K, Bradbury A. ABC of arterial and venous disease: acute limb ischaemia. BMJ 2000; 320(7237): 764–767. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lyden SP, Shortell CK, Illig KA. Reperfusion and compartment syndromes: strategies for prevention and treatment. Semin Vasc Surg 2001; 14(2): 107–113. - PubMed
    1. Rajan DK, Patel NH, Valji K, et al. ; CIRSE and SIR Standards of Practice Committees. Quality improvement guidelines for percutaneous management of acute limb ischemia. J Vasc Interv Radiol 2005; 16(5): 585–595. - PubMed
    1. Ourel K. Acute limb ischemia. In: Rutherford RB. (ed.) Vascular surgery. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, 2005, pp. 959–986.