[Surgery of severe ischemias and infections of the foot in the diabetic. (Role of arterial revascularization)].

From overall data on 54 diabetic patients, who, over a period of 7 years, underwent operations to save their feet from ischaemia (whether linked or not to infection), the authors study 31 cases of revascularization through arterial bridging in the diabetic's lower limbs. The lesions were identified by doppler examination followed by arteriography. Various types of bridging were undertaken: 24 femoro-popliteal bridges, including 16 super-articular and 8 sub-articular ones; and 7 femoro-distal bridges on the leg artery trunks. For the post operational period, only one amputation, resulting from precocious thrombosis in the graft, had been noted. All the patients had been followed up, and the authors remarked that, after an average lapse of 43 months, actuarial survival without amputation of the lower limb amounted to 94.97% after 7 years, and the level of actuarial permeability of the bridges amounted to 72.61% after the same period. The authors stress that revascularization indications should be the same for atheromatous diabetics as for non diabetics.