Videos Guy’s and St Thomas’ Private Healthcare

Vascular community needs a “clear strategy” for treating severely calcified lesions

Description:

Said Abisi (London, UK) talks to Vascular News about the various treatment options for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients with severely calcified lesions, including plain percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), stenting or atherectomy. “None of these come without risk” notes Abisi, who goes on to look at how intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) can offer an alternative that “cracks calcium in a gentle way” and “does not produce dissection or perforation”. He highlights the latest clinical data from the PAD III trial which showed IVL to be “safe and effective” and achieves “superior outcomes” compared to PTA. The vascular community needs to have a clear strategy for treating this challenging condition and to understand which patients would benefit the most from which treatment option, concludes Abisi.