Influence of Diabetes on Revascularisation Procedures of the Aorta and Lower Limb Arteries: Early Results

AbstractObject: to evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus on the therapeutic indications and the one-month results in patients with occlusive disease of the aorta and/or lower limbs arteries. Material: a retrospective study of fully computerised data of 1003 patients (753 men, 250 women) admitted consecutively to our vascular surgery unit over a 5-year period (1992–1996). Of the total, 169 were diabetics (group I) and 834 were non-diabetics (group II). Sixty-two per cent of patients in group I vs. 40% in group II presented with critical ischaemia or trophic changes (p<0.001). Results: 15.4% of patients in group I vs. 4.1% in group II had primary amputation because of irreversible ischaemia or because arterial reconstruction was impossible. Of those who underwent revascularisation, 80% were infrainguinal in group I vs. 50% in group II. Forty-five per cent of patients in group I and 37% in group II had a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and approximately 3% in both groups had a combination of the two techniques. At one month, patients alive without major amputation numbered 64.4% in group I vs. 93.6% in group II, patients alive with major amputation numbered 26.6% in group I vs. 5.5% in group II, and mortality rates were 8.9% in group I vs. 0.8% in group II (P