Saying goes
People grow old before they grow old
Older people often have trouble walking on their legs
Soreness, pain, and discomfort in both legs
A lot of people attribute it to being older
Think it's good to take a break
As everyone knows
The culprit may be something else
01 ⬇
You often hear about "heart attack" and "cerebral infarction", so have you heard of "leg infarction"? Let's take a look at it and understand what the "leg terrier" is.
"Leg infarction" is a kind of peripheral vascular disease in which systemic arteriosclerotic lesions affect the peripheral arteries and cause chronic ischemic changes in the narrowing and occlusion of the arteries of the limbs.
Patients first develop the lower extremities or feet
Chills, soreness, numbness, pain
Intermittent claudication ensues
This is because the calf muscles become cramping, painful, and weak due to ischemia and hypoxia during walking, and the above symptoms can be repeated when the walking symptoms are relieved after rest.
In severe cases, resting pain (pain in the lower extremities at rest or sleep), skin ulcers, and gangrene can lead to avascular necrosis of the limbs, amputation, and even life-threatening.
02 ⬇
Arteriosclerosis obliterans of the lower limbs is more common in middle-aged and elderly people over 45 years old, and it is more common in men. Its occurrence is closely related to lifestyle habits, such as high-fat diet, excessive salt intake, excess weight, lack of exercise, etc.
The risk factors for arteriosclerosis occlusion of the lower extremities mainly include: diabetes mellitus, smoking, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. The incidence of arteriosclerosis of the lower extremities in diabetic patients is several times higher than that of the general population, and the disease is often more severe than others. Smoking can cause arterial constriction, promote arterial stenosis, accelerate the formation of arteriosclerosis, and then aggravate limb ischemia, which is one of the main causes of arteriosclerosis of the lower limbs. Long-term high blood pressure can lead to damage to blood vessels, which can easily form plaques and cause narrowing of blood vessels. Hyperlipidemia can increase blood viscosity, leading to narrowing of blood vessels and causing arteriosclerosis occlusion of the lower extremities.
Environmental factors are also closely related to arteriosclerosclerosis obliterans of the lower extremities. Cold, humid environments are prone to disease, which is also the reason for the higher incidence in the north. As the weather gets colder, blood vessels constrict, which can worsen pre-existing conditions. As a result, such patients often experience exacerbations in the winter.
03 ⬇
Arteriosclerosis occlusive disease of the lower extremities can be quickly diagnosed by non-invasive examinations such as CT contrast (CTA) of the lower extremity arteries, Doppler artery ultrasound, ankle-brachial index (ABI), and exercise stress test.
Patients with mild symptoms can be treated aggressively with the underlying disease (controlling blood sugar and lowering blood pressure), eliminating risk factors (reducing LDL and cholesterol levels), changing lifestyle habits (quitting smoking), and combining antiplatelet and lipid-lowering plaque stabilization drugs.
Minimally invasive interventional treatments can be used for severe cases, including stenting and balloon dilation. Balloon dilation is widely used in minimally invasive vascular interventional treatment, and stenting refers to dissection or elastic retraction after balloon dilation of diseased blood vessels, which can play a supporting role after stent placement and improve the long-term patency rate of blood vessels.
04 ⬇
01
Quit smoking, limit alcohol, change lifestyle habits, and eat a low-salt and low-fat diet.
02
Control of underlying conditions. Diabetic patients, monitor blood sugar daily, take medication on time, and control blood sugar. Patients with hypertension should monitor their blood pressure daily and take appropriate drugs to lower blood pressure.
03
For patients with advanced age and high-risk factors, they should visit the specialist regularly to achieve early screening, early diagnosis and early treatment.
04
It is advisable to wear loose shoes and socks and change them frequently, and try to avoid pressure and friction on the feet. When the weather gets cold, pay attention to keep warm to prevent frostbite, and try to avoid staying outdoors for a long time. Keep it clean, wash your feet with lukewarm water every night, test the water temperature with your hands first, and don't test the water temperature with your toes to avoid burns. When exercising, pay attention to protecting the limbs to avoid trauma.
05
Appropriate and regular walking exercise can alleviate symptoms in most patients. (The method of exercise is that the patient continues to walk until the symptoms appear, and then walks and exercises after the symptoms disappear, and so on for 1 hour a day).
Once again, we should be alert to arteriosclerosis occlusive disease of the lower limbs, especially when there are typical symptoms such as intermittent claudication, rest pain and limb ulcers, it is recommended to go to the outpatient clinic of the Interventional Medicine Center of our hospital as soon as possible (3rd floor of the outpatient clinic) to allow professional physicians to evaluate the condition to prevent the occurrence of serious conditions such as limb gangrene.
Xi'an People's Hospital (Xi'an Fourth Hospital)
Introduction to the Center for Interventional Medicine
The Interventional Medicine Center of Xi'an People's Hospital (Xi'an Fourth Hospital) is a comprehensive clinical department integrating medical teaching and research established by the excellent medical and technical nursing team of the Department of Interventional Radiology of the former Tangdu Hospital. There are 8 doctors in the team, including 1 postdoctor, 4 masters, 3 (associate) chief physicians and 3 attending physicians. It has independent outpatient clinics, wards, interventional operating rooms, and is equipped with 4 large vascular machines (DSA), radiofrequency ablation treatment instruments and other advanced equipment.
The main features of the interventional medicine center are peripheral vascular (varicose veins of the lower limbs, venous thrombosis of the lower limbs, arteriosclerosis occlusion of the lower limbs, etc.), tumors (liver cancer, hepatic hemangioma, gastric cancer, etc.), obstetrics and gynecology (uterine fibroids, fallopian tube obstruction, etc.), bleeding disorders (hemoptysis, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, etc.), and digestive intervention (obstructive jaundice, etc.). As a national "intravenous intervention alliance unit", it comprehensively carries out the diagnosis and treatment of arterial and venous vascular diseases, and guides the comprehensive treatment of complex venous thromboembolism (including pulmonary embolism) in the hospital. (Xi'an People's Hospital (Xi'an Fourth Hospital))