First, the incidence is high. The incidence of lower extremity atherosclerosis is about 10%. With age, its incidence is on the rise, with the incidence of people over 70 years of age at 15%-20%, of which about 5%-10% will develop into severe lower limb ischemia, which means resting pain in the toes, foot ulcers, gangrene of the toes and lead to amputation or death. Secondly, there is a high chance of combined cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. The literature reports that about 60%~80% of patients with lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease have combined coronary artery disease, and about 12%~28.4% have combined carotid artery stenosis. Among the patients hospitalized for lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease in our department, the number of patients with severe carotid stenosis is as high as about 40%. Third, the prognosis is poor. The literature reports that the 5-year mortality rate of patients with intermittent claudication is about 30%, while the 5-year mortality rate of patients with severe lower extremity ischemia manifesting as resting pain, ulcers and gangrene is 70%. The main cause of death is still coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Patients with lower extremity atherosclerosis-occlusive disease that I see in the clinic are often elderly patients who come to the clinic only after they have developed toe rest pain or ulcers or gangrene, and have trouble sleeping at night due to ischemic rest pain, and some have heart attacks or brain attacks while waiting for hospitalization or just before they are admitted to the hospital. Therefore, if you are over 50 years old, when you have intermittent claudication of the lower limbs, that is, when you walk a certain distance with muscle pain and weakness in the hip, thigh or calf (calf is the most common) and cramps caused by ischemia in the lower limbs, and you need to be forced to stop walking and rest for 3-5 minutes to get relief, and when the same symptoms appear again when you walk again, and when the arterial pulsation of the affected limb is weakened or cannot be felt, you need to consult a vascular It is important to note that the arteries of the lower extremities should be treated with the same care. It should be noted that less than 1/3 of the lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive diseases show the above typical intermittent claudication symptoms, and most of them are atypical. Therefore, whenever there is a manifestation of leg pain, it is necessary to go to the vascular surgery clinic of the hospital for professional vascular examination to avoid delaying the disease.
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