Science / Medicine : Leg Angioplasty Found Ineffective

The widespread use of tiny balloons to open clogged arteries in the legs has failed to either reduce the need for surgery or save limbs from amputation, researchers from Johns Hopkins University reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study found that the use of the balloon procedure, known as angioplasty, has grown dramatically over the past decade for treatment of pain caused by narrowed arteries in the leg. The technique is similar to one used to relieve clogged arteries in the heart, and its purpose is to restore blood flow to the legs. But the Hopkins researchers found that the rate of amputations had not changed since 1979, a period when the use of angioplasty skyrocketed.

In an accompanying editorial, Jay D. Coffman of Boston University Medical Center called the lack of effect on amputation a “surprising finding.”