About PAD

Do you have pain or numbness in your legs while at rest?

Do you or does someone you know have a sore on the foot or leg that won’t heal?

Learn more about Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI).

PAD and CLI

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), a form of Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), blocks circulation to vital arteries, most often the legs and feet. PAD is often associated with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, sedentary lifestyle and aging.1

PAD develops most commonly as a result of hardening of the arteries, which occurs when cholesterol and fat build up, forming plaque inside the arteries that narrows and clogs.1

The American Heart Association reports PAD affects as many as eight-million Americans.2 Only 50 percent experience any symptoms.1 The Society for Vascular Surgery® (SVS) estimates one in three people over the age of 70 will have PAD. Smokers and diabetics are likely to develop the disease earlier in life.3

Symptoms of PAD include leg pain, coldness in the lower legs and feet, and ulcers or sores on the legs or feet that don’t heal.2

Once a patient is diagnosed with PAD, there are several treatment options, including pharmacology, bypass surgery, balloon angioplasty and ablation or atherectomy. Laser ablation is a minimally invasive procedure, a form of atherectomy, requiring less recovery time than bypass surgery. These treatments may provide patients an alternative to amputation.

Excimer laser ablation is a procedure from Spectranetics designed to treat people diagnosed with PAD. Excimer laser ablation utilizes an excimer laser to vaporize blockages and restore blood flow in leg arteries. The entire procedure takes approximately one to two hours, with only minutes of laser ablation, followed by one to two days of recovery, typically as an outpatient, and the patient can usually go home within a day. An alternate procedure, open surgical bypass, requires general anesthesia during the surgery and a much longer recovery.

CLI, the most severe form of PAD, occurs when plaque accumulates in the leg arteries, completely blocking blood flow. When blood flow is blocked, it may lead to pain, wounds that will not heal, ulcers and/or gangrene. If blood flow is not restored, the patient may be at high risk for amputation.

Approximately one-million people in the United States suffer from CLI. More than half of all CLI patients are diabetic. Many also share a history of smoking and obesity.

Physicians who have used Spectranetics excimer laser technology the longest began by treating the most severe cases. The Food and Drug Administration cleared excimer laser ablation for CLI patients in the year 2000.

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