Marian Croitoru1
1 „Prof. Dr. C.C. Iliescu” Emergency Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases, Bucharest, Romania
Interventional therapy for peripheral artery disease (PAD) is very actual because of the permanent increasing of the number of patients with this pathology. This evolution is not due only to increasing of life expectancy, but to permanent increase of the incidence of diabetes melitus. Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the most severe type of PAD, and even though is affecting only 1-3% from the patients with PAD, put a real burden on the health system because many patients with CLI suffer minor or major leg amputations. Patients with major amputation have a 40% risk of death in 2 years, and a 30% risk of a second amputation. The quality of life of patients with major amputation is similar with that of patients with terminal neoplastic illness and so is the economic burden. In Romania there are only few interventional centers for PAD and the number of patients treated is small. IUBCV “CC Iliescu” has the biggest center for PAD interventions, with about 300 peripheral angioplasties annually, from which 60-80 are below the knee with a 80-90% rate of success. There is an increasing interest in peripheral interventions in some Romanian interventional centers in the last years, which is hopeful for the future. It was a real pleasure to read the study on peripheral artery interventions written by Dr. Filip and his coworkers from the Baia Mare Hospital. Even though the number of interventions was not big, the long follow up was remarkable and the result were similar with those reported in important international centers. The long time followed up of those 181 patients showed a thorough work which has to be appreciated. Especially in a country with only few centers dedicated to PAD.
In Romania, more centers for peripheral artery disease intervention are needed. And especially dedicated centers for diabetic foot are urgently needed!
Conflict of interest: none declared.
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