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Natural history

Authoring team

In patients with only intermittent claudication amputation is not the main threat:

  • the risk of death or disease from co-morbid cardiovascular disease is far greater than the risk of major amputation
  • in contrast, the 5 year risk of major amputation is only 2%

In patients with critical limb ischaemia the risk of amputation is high:

  • more than 12% at 3 months
  • the risk is increased if the patient continues to smoke and in diabetics

Ref: Ouriel, K. (2001) Peripheral arterial disease Lancet 2001; 358: 1257–64

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