ABOUT Peripheral artery disease: Risks & precautions

Understanding Peripheral Artery Disease

An estimated 10 million Americans have peripheral artery disease (PAD). How can something so common be so serious? One reason is that people with PAD often don’t know they have the disease until it causes a heart attack or stroke. At South Miami Heart Center, we not only help people recover from PAD, we seek to educate our community about the disease. This Web page is part of our educational effort.

About Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)

Peripheral artery disease progresses slowly, as arteries in the legs become clogged and blood flow is restricted. PAD can be a sign that the same process is happening in other areas of your body. Sometimes, peripheral artery disease happens for other reasons, such as trauma to the arms or legs, anatomical irregularities or infection.

Are You at Risk?

Since many people don’t realize they have peripheral artery disease, South Miami Heart Center wants you to review the following risk factors and precautions. Women should take special note—PAD makes them four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

Peripheral artery disease risk factors:

• Smoking—past or present
• Family history of heart disease or diabetes diabetes
• Diagnosis of heart disease or diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol and/or high lipid blood test
• Over age 50
• Chronic leg pain or fatigue
• Lack of exercise

Symptoms

Individuals with PAD often don’t experience symptoms. If they do, they may attribute these symptoms to aging. Symptoms associated with peripheral artery disease include:

• Leg pain during walking or exercising that disappears when activity stops
• Numbness and tingling in lower legs and feet
• Coldness in lower legs and feet
• Nonhealing leg or foot ulcers or sores

Treating Patients with PAD

South Miami Heart Center helps people overcome heart diseases such as PAD. Our commitment to your health is why we provide screening, diagnosis, prevention and treatments designed for people with PAD. Heart Center physicians work closely with patients to stop the disease before it has serious consequences.

Get Screened for PAD

The good news about PAD is that early detection can help you avoid life-threatening conditions associated with the disease. Screening is quick, noninvasive and affordable. Take the first step to a longer, healthier life by taking precautions for peripheral artery disease. Schedule your screening or call 786-662-4380

Treatment

If you catch PAD early, treatment is simple. Just change your lifestyle—exercise every day, quit smoking and eat healthier. South Miami Heart Center physicians and staff will create a lifestyle modification plan that works for you.

Angioplasty and Stenting

If your disease has progressed, South Miami Heart Center’s vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists or interventional cardiologists can help. These highly experienced specialists use minimally invasive techniques to treat peripheral artery disease. They are skilled at using angioplasty and stenting to treat PAD. Guided by X-ray images, a catheter is thread through the femoral artery in the groin. This catheter is carefully moved to the blocked leg artery. When the tiny balloon is opened in the artery, the blood flow is restored. Sometimes, a tiny metal cylinder called a stent is placed in the artery to keep it open. Patients receive local anesthesia during the procedure.

Limb Salvage Bypass Surgery

For people who are not candidates for angioplasty and stenting, our vascular surgeons perform limb salvage bypass surgery, or peripheral bypass surgery, to prevent the need for amputation. In this procedure, blood vessels of the legs and arms are surgically rerouted around blockages, restoring blood flow to those extremities.

Physician Referral

Get an online referral to a South Miami Heart Center physician or call the South Miami Heart Center Physician Referral line at 786-662-2222 for more information or peripheral artery disease.