What is atherosclerotic occlusive disease? Atherosclerotic occlusive disease is a local manifestation of systemic atherosclerosis in the limbs, mainly manifested as atherosclerotic plaques in the intima, degeneration or calcification of the middle layer of tissue, secondary thrombosis in the lumen, destruction of the arterial wall, and eventually narrowing of the lumen or even complete occlusion, causing acute or chronic ischemic symptoms in the affected limbs, which can lead to limb necrosis in severe cases. What are the typical manifestations of lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease? The early manifestations of lower limb atherosclerotic occlusive disease include coldness and numbness of the affected limb, as well as soreness and swelling of the lower leg when walking, weakness, intermittent claudication, followed by pale skin of the limb, lowered temperature, muscle atrophy, and even resting pain at night, which seriously affects sleep; in the late stage, the artery of the affected limb is completely occluded, and necrosis of the limb occurs, which can form a long-lasting ulcer and eventually lead to amputation of the limb. How should lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease be treated? At present, there are two main types of treatment for lower limb atherosclerotic occlusive disease, namely conservative medical treatment and surgical treatment. I. Internal treatment: 1. Drug treatment. The use of vasodilators can release vasospasm and promote collateral circulation, thus improving the blood supply to the affected limbs; meanwhile, patients with coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and after surgical procedures can also apply platelet aggregation inhibitors such as aspirin, etc. 2.Control the risk factors of atherosclerosis, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and especially emphasize smoking cessation, which helps to slow down the progress of the disease. 3.Walking exercise. Daily walking for more than 30 minutes for several months is expected to increase the walking distance of patients. 4.Protect the limbs from mechanical, temperature and chemical trauma, and keep the skin clean. II. Surgery: 1. Vascular bypass surgery. It refers to the use of an artificial or autologous blood vessel to cross the diseased artery and direct the proximal blood to the distal ischemic site to relieve pain, promote healing and restore limb function. 2. Endothelial stripping. It is mainly applied to the short segment of arterial occlusive lesions, surgical debridement of the hyperplastic intima and secondary thrombus to release the stenosis of the vessel. 3.Percutaneous endoluminal balloon angioplasty. Percutaneous endoluminal balloon angioplasty is the most widely used endovascular surgical technique in clinical practice. For some short-segment occlusive lesions, a catheter with a balloon can be inserted via percutaneous puncture to dilate the lesion with a balloon, so that the occluded arterial segment can be recanalized. 4. Endoluminal stent angioplasty. Since there is a problem of recurrence after percutaneous endoluminal balloon angioplasty, the use of endovascular stents in combination with percutaneous endoluminal balloon angioplasty can greatly improve the long-term patency rate. 5.Intraluminal ultrasound angioplasty. Using the mechanical vibration and cavitation effect of ultrasound to remove the atherosclerotic plaque, with little damage to the vessel wall and few complications, it is a safe and reliable angioplasty. 6.Bone marrow stem cell transplantation. Using advanced stem cell extraction technology, the stem cells extracted from the bone marrow in the body are injected into the occluded part of the blood vessel by interventional and local methods to promote the growth of new blood vessels and improve the blood supply to the limbs. This is a simple, safe and effective method with the advantages of easy extraction, no rejection and no socio-ethical problems, especially for patients who cannot bypass surgery or cannot tolerate surgery. Vascular bypass is a classical surgical treatment that reconstructs the blood supply to the arteries of the lower extremities by grafting autologous veins or artificial vessels with definite efficacy, but is highly invasive. Endovascular treatment is a less invasive, faster recovery and repeatable procedure that can be performed by arterial puncture to dilate or implant a stent, especially in elderly patients with high risk of bypass surgery. Even with multiple treatments, lower limb atherosclerosis occlusive disease still has an amputation rate of about 5% and mortality rate, the reason is that the disease is difficult to treat, especially in advanced patients there is no complete cure rate, so early treatment is very important; the timing of treatment is too late, and the best treatment opportunity has been lost when tossed to an experienced vascular specialist; the treatment time is long, and some patients cannot adhere to treatment and still smoke a lot, etc. Therefore, early and timely treatment and regular and serious conditioning are also very important.