BACKGROUND

This overview comments on gender-specific differences in prevalence, treatment and outcome in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), carotid stenosis, and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

METHOD

For the literature review, the Medline database (PubMed) was searched under the key words "peripheral arterial disease AND gender", "carotid stenosis AND gender" and "abdominal aortic aneurysm AND gender".

RESULTS

1.) Women (preferably black women) with PAD experience rather than men bypass failure or amputation. Nevertheless, gender should not constitute a selection criterion for revascularisation therapy. Despite an older age and more advanced stages of disease in women, infrainguinal arterial reconstructions could achieve, in published series, patency and limb salvage rates which did not differ from those of men. 2.) The benefit of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis is less for women compared with men. However, registries exhibited at best for symptomatic women an increased perioperative risk of CEA compared with men, with CEA especially in women better than carotid artery stenting. The treatment of AAA shows significant gender differences. The risk of rupture for small aneurysms is significantly greater in women compared with men, and they have higher in-hospital mortality rates for both open and endovascular repair of ruptured and intact AAA. Yet women also benefit from endovascular repair of AAA compared to open repair, although their eligibility for endovascular repair is less than that of men due to anatomic conditions.

CONCLUSION

As a rule, for the mentioned diseases less favourable results were reported in women. This may reflect biological disparities, or the differences are based on the fact that women develop arteriosclerotic changes later in life, requiring treatment in older age, with more advanced disease, and with higher comorbidity than men. In addition gender-related differences in the use of secondary medical prevention of PAD have been described. Future studies on the potential impact of gender on the results of vascular surgery are needed.