Peripheral arterial embolism. A follow-up of 130 consecutive patients submitted to embolectomy.

A series of 130 consecutive patients operated on for peripheral arterial embolism in 152 extremities and the longterm results of surgery are presented. The source of embolism was identifiable in 82 percent of the cases, atrial fibrillation being the source in 37 percent and myocardial infarction in 24 percent. Microscopy of the embolus permitted the diagnosis bronchogenic carcinoma in five patients. Echocardiography resulted in surgical correction in one younger patient with left atrial myxoma. Fourteen percent of the patients died after embolectomy. The initial limb salvage rate was 77 percent, and had fallen to 39 percent at the time of follow-up. The cause of this fall in salvage rate was not amputations, but excessive high mortality in the patient group compared to the normal population. The cumulative survival rate was thus 69, 39 and 21 percent, one, five, and 10 years after operation. Death was primarily due to the patients' underlying cardiovascular disease.