Comparative analysis of remote results of transluminal balloon angioplasty in treatment of lower limb critical ischaemia in groups of patients with and without diabetes mellitus.

All the hitherto conducted studies aimed at determining the efficacy of transluminal balloon angioplasty (TLBAP) in patients presenting with lower limb critical ischaemia (LLCI) have either dealt with the whole population of the patients involved, including a large proportion therein of patients with simultaneously present diabetes mellitus (DM), or solely investigated a group of patients suffering exclusively from diabetic foot syndrome. There has virtually been no information about non-diabetic patients, thus casting reasonable doubts upon feasibility of subjecting them to TLBAP, especially in the situation wherein there does exist a surgical alternative. In order to elucidate the problem concerned, we performed a comparative analysis of the incidence rate of freedom from LLCI relapses following TLBAP in diabetic versus non-diabetic patients. Based on the findings obtained from this analysis, a conclusion was made that the remote results of TLBAP were statistically not considered to be different in the groups of diabetic patients and non-diabetic subjects within the time frame of a 12-month follow up period. For the joint group, the cumulative probability of freedom from LLCI relapses during one year amounted to 65%, which is comparable with the outcomes of distal bypass grafting operations.