Peripheral Vascular Disease(In Hindi): Symptoms, Causes, & Treatment

In this video SimpliHealth expert vascular surgeon Dr. Ravul Jindal will talk about Peripheral Vascular Disease and its Causes, Symptoms, Treatment & Preventions. You must’ve heard about heart attacks where the veins in the heart are blocked, causing cardiac arrest. Later the blood supply is improved with medicines and bypass. 

Similarly, you must’ve heard about a brain attack or what we call a stroke, which is caused due to the blockage of the arteries in the brain. In the same way, the arteries in our arms and legs can get blocked as well. This blockage can cause peripheral vascular disease. Therefore, it can also be called peripheral arterial disease, and in layman terms, it is called leg attack. 

Peripheral vascular disease symptoms

This blockage in the veins can cause different types of symptoms. Some patients may experience silent artery blockage as they control their risk factors, and the blockage is slow. Some patients may have difficulty walking due to blocked arteries. Patients complain about pain in the calf and thigh.  The pain starts when the patient starts to walk and stops when he stops walking. And if the patient still does not get it diagnosed, it becomes gangrene. Gangrene is when the patient gets boils on their feet and the toes turn black. We also call this limb ischemia. And we want people to be aware and not get to this stage; therefore, we are talking about this to spread awareness. 

Peripheral vascular disease causes

We need to understand the causes of peripheral artery disease. Smoking, blood pressure, diabetes, age factor high cholesterol are the risk factors contributing to blockage in arteries. Hypercoagulability is a genetic disorder that makes the blood thick. This can also contribute to the blockage of arteries.

Peripheral vascular disease Diagnosis

The diagnosis for this is very easy. If you experience any of the symptoms I mentioned before, go to your nearest doctor and get your pulses checked. If your pulses are absent then we do a very simple test, doppler, or an ultrasound. In these tests, we can find out the location of the blockage. Once we find this out then it can very well be treated with medicines. 

Peripheral vascular disease treatment

If the patient comes to us during the early stage, then there is no need for surgery. We just prescribe medications and control the risk factors. With this, we can control the thickness of the blood, the lipid profiles, and the blood pressure with the help of some medicines. The blood sugar levels are also strictly moderated. We also teach the patient exercises to perform to treat the blockage with medicines alone. 

If the patient comes to us at a later stage of the disease, we do an angiography. This helps us find out the location of the blockage. And then, we put a stent or do a bypass to get proper blood flow to the legs. 

How can you prevent peripheral vascular disease? 

The most important thing is prevention. Prevention for this is keeping your sugar levels, blood pressure, quitting smoking, keeping the lipid in control and exercising regularly, consuming a low fat-free diet, eating fruits and vegetables. If we follow all this, then there are zero to no changes that we can get this problem. 

At the same time, if you have peripheral artery disease, do consult a specialist at the earliest so that this can be treated with medications and no surgery is required. Let us know if you need any more information. And prevention is better than cure.