Procedures alleviate pain in blocked leg arteries

AZUSA, Calif. (KABC) -- Keeping up with her five grandkids hasn't been easy for 68-year-old Beverly Zeller of Azusa. With peripheral artery disease, she can't stay on her legs for too long.

"I have to sit down. If I don't, the pain is so bad that I'd be in tears," Zeller said.

Peripheral Artery Disease is like a SigAlert on a main artery in the leg, vascular surgeon Jeffrey Kronson said. The blockage backs up blood flow and causes pain.

About 10 percent of patients need treatment.

The gold standard is bypass surgery in which the artery is replaced with a vein. It requires up to a week in the hospital and two months of rehabilitation.

"In the last decade, we've moved from open surgery, where we had to do bypasses or clean out the plaque in arteries, to catheter, wire-based procedures," Kronson said.

In these procedures, surgeons send in a catheter through the groin to clear out the blockage and in some cases put in a stent.

Potential complications include bleeding, sudden closure of the artery and tears.

Angioplasty of the leg arteries is less invasive and the recovery is much faster.

"The trade-off is, the wires, the balloons, the stents, they work, they're easy, but the longevity is not certain," Kronson said.

For patients like Beverly, vascular therapy was a much more attractive option than a bypass. She had one leg done and is ready to do the same procedure in the other.

She can now walk pain free in the right leg.

"About a week after I had it, I went for a mile-and-a-half walk three or four times a week, I was doing great," Zeller said.