How Is Peripheral Artery Disease Treated Generally?

Lifestyle changes such as dietary modifications, exercise and smoking cessation often are the first choices for patients with early-stage PAD Other interventions may be needed to restore blood flow:

Angioplasty: In an angioplasty procedure, an interventional radiologist threads a catheter through a blood vessel to the affected artery and inflates a small balloon to reopen it. In some cases, the insertion of a stent is required to help keep the artery open. Stents are either balloon-expandable or self-expanding metallic scaffolds that remain permanently in the blood vessel after implantation.

Bypass surgery: Surgeons perform bypass surgery by grafting a vessel from another part of your body or using a synthetic graft made of fabric, allowing blood to flow around, or bypass, the blocked or narrowed artery.

Catheter-directed Thrombolysis: In this minimally invasive treatment, an interventional radiologist uses a catheter to reach the site of the blockage and injects a drug to dissolve the blood clot. This typically requires an overnight infusion.

Atherectomy: This minimally invasive procedure uses a catheter to reach the site of the blockage. There, a small blade or laser is deployed to remove the arterial plaque. The catheter captures the collected plaque in a chamber in the tip. The process can be repeated to treat additional plaque.