[Diabetic arterial disease. Surgical indications of the basis of a series of 416 cases (author's transl)].

416 cases of diabetic arterial disease were treated over a period of 5 years, the majority of patients (71%) having trophic problems from the outset. -- Clinically, distinction must be drawn between patients suffering from "ischemic" disturbances, where healing is obtained after an appropriate surgical procedure (reconstructive surgery, if not lumbar sympathectomy) and so-called "diabetic" gangrene, where cure is obtained only by isolated excision. -- Few of the patients had lesions making reconstructive surgery possible, and the latter was thus only rarely indicated (13% of cases). -- So-called "major" amputations through leg or thigh were necessary in 16% of cases. Distal excision, if necessary atypical, thus in 84% of cases led to healing with preservation of weight-bearing.