Peripheral Artery Disease Treatment

Our cardiovascular specialists will recommend a treatment based on your unique needs.

To treat your PAD, our experts may suggest:

• Atherectomy: This minimally invasive procedure removes the hardened fat and cholesterol (plaque) that narrows your arteries. Our specialists use a rotating blade or burr attached to a thin tube (a catheter) to grind these blockages. Doing this restores normal blood flow.
• Balloon Angioplasty: Our specialists thread a tiny balloon attached to a catheter through your blocked blood vessel. They use X-ray guidance to get the balloon in the right spot. Then, they inflate it to open your blood vessels for normal blood flow.
• Drug Therapy: Our specialists may suggest you pair certain medications with exercise. This combination can relieve leg pain and cramping.
• Exercise Training: Your muscles receive limited oxygen when you have PAD. This leads to leg pain and cramping. Intensive exercise training helps you grow new blood vessels to improve blood flow. Over time, you can walk further with less pain.
• Percutaneous Revascularization: These techniques use catheters. They let our specialists treat your blockages without surgery. It will take less time for you to recover from these procedures.
• Stenting: Sometimes, balloon angioplasty doesn’t work well. In these cases, our specialists use X-ray guidance to place a metal stent where your blockage is. Metal stents hold your artery open. They come in different sizes and fit specific arteries.
• Surgical Revascularization: You may need surgery if you have blockages in several arteries. Revascularization is a surgical bypass procedure. It removes one of your veins and uses it to create a route around your blockage.
• Drug-eluting Balloones & Stents: These devices may be used to deliver medication into your blood vessels to prevent blockages from recurring.

Emory Healthcare is a national leader in peripheral artery disease treatment. Our experts in Emory Heart & Vascular and Division of Vascular Surgery & Endovascular Therapy work together to deliver the most forward-thinking therapies. We collaborate to catch and treat your condition as early as possible.