[Vascular interventions and reconstructive plastic surgery. Optimizing the treatment of chronic wounds].

Despite the high prevalence of arterial occlusive disease, only a few studies have investigated the benefit of interventions to recanalize extremity arteries prior to plastic operations to close chronic wounds. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation of simple clinical examinations and apparative diagnostics of arterial occlusive disease of the lower extremity in patients with chronic wounds and to evaluate the benefit of vascular procedures to optimize wound perfusion before surgical closure. A total of 150 individuals with chronic wounds were included in this retrospective study. All patients underwent palpation of their foot pulses, Doppler sonography, and measurement of occlusive pressure. Positive results were tested by angiography. All patients with peripheral extremity vessel occlusion underwent vascular interventions prior to plastic operations for definitive wound closure. In all 34 patients with missing foot pulses, the clinical diagnosis of arterial occlusion could be confirmed by angiography. Peripheral recanalization and improved wound perfusion could be achieved in all patients. Arterial insufficiency could be diagnosed rapidly and safely using simple clinical examination such as palpation of foot pulses or measurement of occlusive pressures combined with Doppler sonography. Thus this simple and straightforward algorithm helped to secure the success of surgical therapy by shortening the time until wound-healing and reducing the psychosocial burden on the patient and financial costs to the health care system.