Association between the number of vascular operation on the lower limbs and long term survival

Objective:

To investigate to what extent the need for more than one vascular operation for chronic lower limb ischaemia was associated with relative long term survival.

Design:

Retrospective observational study.

Setting:

University hospital, Norway.

Subjects:

1574 patients (29% women) operated on for chronic lower limb arterial insufficiency. Of these 447 needed at least one further operation for progressive limb ischaemia.

Main outcome measures:

Long term survival estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. The expected survival was calculated from mortality tables issued by the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Results:

The 10-year survival rate was 46% for the patients operated on once and 24% for the patients who had two or more operations. The expected survival rates were 57% and 52%, respectively. Both categories of patients had significantly shorter long term survival than a demographically-matched population. The long term survival of patients operated on twice or more was significantly less than that of those who needed only one operation.

Conclusion:

There is an association between the need for more than one vascular operation and long-term survival. Atherosclerotic disease among these patients seems to be more aggressive. Copyright © 1999 Taylor and Francis Ltd.