[Chronic spinal stimulation in treatment of lower limb critical ischaemia syndrome]

Obliterating peripheral artery disease is a commonly occurring pathological condition, most often resulting from an atherosclerotic lesion of vessels with progressive narrowing of their lumens. The consequences of decompensation of chronic arterial insufficiency such as ischaemic pain, claudication, and trophic impairments are in some instances difficult to treat, despite using multicomponent medicamentous therapy and/or performing revascularizing interventions. This article describes a clinical case report regarding the use of spinal stimulation in a patient presenting with stage IV chronic lower limb ischaemia according to the Fontaine classification. This is accompanied and followed by depicting the dynamics of the laboratory, instrumental, and clinical parameters over a two-year follow-up period. In order to explain the choice of the intervention and the causes of the described picture, discussed are the existing theories of the mechanisms of action of spinal stimulation. To this is added a literature review of using this method in treatment of lower limb critical ischaemia when performing reconstructive angiosurgical treatment is unavailable. Mention is also made of the incidence and types of probable complications, as well as possibilities and limitations of the method.