Walking after leg pain, cramps and even leg swelling, is often encountered by many middle-aged and elderly people, especially in the winter when the temperature is low, many people tend to think of it as a cold, lack of calcium, is a sign of weakness, physical inability to perform, it is a normal phenomenon, the older it is! But do you know what? This soreness phenomenon may indicate a potential disease – lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease. In some cases, intermittent claudication occurs only after walking long distances, so it is not taken seriously; in many cases, intermittent claudication is treated as general low back pain or calcium deficiency and misdiagnosed for a long time. With the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, changes in dietary structure and population aging, the incidence of atherosclerosis is on the rise in the elderly over 60 years of age in our country, according to the literature report, and the incidence rate is as high as 17% in the 55-70 years old population. The incidence of atherosclerosis has become one of the most common diseases among the elderly. The disease is characterized by an insidious onset in the early stage, manifested by the repetitive pattern of “walking-pain-rest-relief”, and once in the middle or late stage, because of severe ischemia of the limbs, resulting in severe pain or even necrosis of the affected limbs, a considerable portion of patients have to undergo amputation, which seriously affects the quality of life. Diabetic patients due to endocrine and metabolic dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy, microvascular disease, macrovascular disease complex interaction between a number of factors, diabetic patients occur atherosclerosis occlusive disease more than non-diabetic, and make atherosclerosis occurs early and to a serious degree. According to its clinical manifestations, this disease also belongs to the categories of “pulse paralysis” and “gangrene” in Chinese medicine. In the early stage of the disease, when the patient walks, the muscle of the lower limb needs more oxygen, so it is in the state of relative hypoxia, then anaerobic metabolism will occur, generating lactic acid and other metabolites to stimulate the nerves and the affected limbs, especially the soreness of the calf muscles. At this time, if the patient sits down for a short break, the soreness can be relieved or disappear, but then again walking a certain distance after the pain will be aggravated, so repeated intermittently, the bystander to see, the person walks around, it seems a little bit inexplicable. This is called “intermittent claudication”. The more severe the arterial stenosis, the shorter the walking distance the patient can tolerate, until he or she eventually loses the ability to walk. In the later stages of the disease, the arteries may even be occluded, and then even at rest the limbs are in a state of extreme ischemia, and the nerve endings produce severe pain, called “resting pain”, especially at night, so that such patients are often unable to sleep through the night due to the severe pain, resulting in great pain. At the same time, skin and muscle tissues lose their vitality gradually due to ischemia, which eventually leads to ulceration of the affected feet, especially toes, or blackened gangrene, and repeated infections of the necrotic parts are often uncontrollable with general drugs, resulting in the so-called “old rotten feet”, especially in patients with diabetes, which is more likely to be produced, and is prone to evolve into wet gangrene and secondary infections, and can be accompanied by systemic toxic symptoms. It is also easy to develop wet gangrene and secondary infection, which may be accompanied by systemic toxic symptoms. It is worth noting that the early stages of intermittent claudication are only detected by the patients themselves, and if they are not careful, it will be mistaken as a physical problem and ignored. Do not self-diagnose and self-treat, as this will delay the condition on the one hand, and abuse of medication on the other hand will also cause harm to the body. Therefore, it is best to go to a hospital that specializes in vascular surgery to confirm the diagnosis through scientific means. Such as non-invasive lower extremity blood flow analyzer, lower extremity arterial ultrasound, and CT, MRI (MRI), etc., these tests can help to determine the existence of limb arterial stenosis and occlusion. These tests can help to determine whether there is stenosis or occlusion of the limb arteries, so as not to miss the time of treatment. Especially for diabetic patients should care for your feet, when there are abnormal changes in the color of the skin of the feet, temperature sensation, sense of touch, etc., or some minor traumas, please find a professional doctor in time to diagnose and treat. In the early stage of atherosclerotic stenosis can be treated with anticoagulation, expectorant or vasodilator drugs to promote blood flow and correct tissue ischemia, and at the same time, appropriate walking exercises can be used to enhance the tolerance of lower limb tissues to ischemia, and to promote the formation and opening of collateral vessels around the occluded arteries, which can play the role of alleviating the condition. Once the intermittent claudication worsens or “resting pain” and the foot gangrene stage, the patient should go to a vascular surgery specialist as early as possible, and the treatment is mainly to rebuild the blood supply of the affected limb through surgery. Surgical methods include traditional surgery to replace the occluded artery with an artificial blood vessel, arterial endoluminal plasty and stem cell transplantation, each of which has its own indications, while arterial endoluminal plasty has become the direction of development of vascular surgery with its minimally invasive characteristics. Interventional therapy is less invasive, and with the application of local anesthesia, the patient is awake during the operation, which is more suitable for elderly, frail patients and patients with other organ diseases.