Patients' perspective about risks and benefits of treatment for peripheral arterial disease.

Purpose: To report the results of a standard gamble-type survey conducted to explore patients' heuristics in regard to therapy for peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Materials And Methods: Patients presenting to a vascular and interventional radiology practice because of suspected PAD were asked to indicate their threshold for risk of amputation during a curative procedure for intermittent claudication (IC) and for risk of death from a curative medication for critical limb ischemia (CLI). Possible relationships of risk threshold with age, gender, ankle-brachial index (ABI), and functional claudication distance were assessed with univariate statistics followed by multivariable generalized linear mixed models of risk acceptance at various risk levels.

Results: Study participants were 20 patients (40% women), with median age of 64 years, functional claudication distance of 1 block, and ABI of 0.72. In the IC scenario, up to 1% risk of above-knee amputation was found to be the median risk acceptable to patients for undergoing a curative procedure. In the CLI scenario, the median risk acceptance for mortality from a curative medication was up to 1%. The multivariable model for the IC scenario revealed significantly greater acceptance of risk at a given level among older patients and women. No significant predictor was delineated by the multivariable model for the CLI scenario.

Conclusions: Overall, patients have a low threshold for complications of PAD therapy, consistent with endovascular but not with open surgical strategies. However, considerable variation in preferences underlines the value of individualized treatment strategies.