[Treatment of diabetic arteriopathy. Importance of transluminal angioplasty].

Results are reported of a retrospective analysis of transluminal angioplasty (TLA) interventions in 20 diabetic patients, 16 men and 4 women, mean age 56 years (range 32 to 82 years), with 24 dilated lesions, 16 patients having insulin-dependent diabetes. In 12 cases the lesions were at the intermittent claudication stage, trophic lesions being present in 8 cases. Stenotic lesions were iliac (12 cases), superficial femoral (2 cases), popliteal (6 cases) and tibial (4 cases). One patient developed an acute occlusion following popliteal-anterior tibial recanalization, the only direct complication of the angioplasty. Angiography showed immediate satisfactory results in 22 of the 24 dilated lesions. Functional and hemodynamic improvement was a constant finding in patients with intermittent claudication, trophic lesions being healed in 4 cases (50%) the other patient showing either no change or requiring an unavoidable amputation (2 cases). These overall findings suggest that at the intermittent claudication stage no differences exist in the results of TLA when compared with a non diabetic population; inversely, in the presence of trophic disorders, the local conditions (distal bed, infection, gangrene) interfere considerably in the course of the dilatation. Transluminal angioplasty should therefore be carried out as early as possible in diabetics; arteriography should be performed as soon as even minimal claudication appears and, a fortiori, even at the onset of a trophic lesion.