Smoking and other factors affecting the conservative management of peripheral vascular disease

Three hundred and ninety patients with peripheral vascular disease, who were neither eligible for, nor fit to undergo, surgery, have been studied in a prospective trial to assess the effectiveness of adequate active conservative therapy. These patients were followed up from 4 to 72 months, the duration of the average follow-up being 24 months. There was a 72% over-all improvement rate. The most striking feature of the trial was the correlation between smoking and failure to improve.