[Results of bypass surgery for imperiled leg]

Femoropopliteal and crural bypass operations are performed frequently, but the results of operations for intermittent claudication and severe ischaemia are often reported jointly. However, the importance of the latter category for the quality of life is of a different order, so that its results should be studied separately. In a period of over eight years 199 bypass operation were performed. The cumulative proportion of preserved legs after three years was 82% for femoropopliteal and 68% for femorocrural transplantations. Factors such as presence of gangrene, diabetes mellitus and a systolic ankle blood pressure below 40 mm Hg were associated with a significantly smaller proportion of saved legs. The five-year survival rate for the group of patients as a whole was 42%, far lower than the 79% that applies to a comparable group of healthy persons. Cardiopathy was the main cause of death. Even if the number of remaining years of life is less, saving the leg by a bypass operation performed in time should be considered of major importance.