Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a chronic disease due to the build up of plaque in the arteries to the extremites and affects the lower extremity more often than the upper extremities. This happens slowly overtime and is accelerated by smoking and other risk factors.

This is a relatively common disease and tends to affect people who are 65 or older, but can occur earlier than that.

Common complaints include early cramping or fatigue of muscles while walking involving the calf, thigh or buttock, painful toes when walking or resting, or non-healing wounds on toes or feet.

If there are no wounds or pain at rest, it is usually safe to manage these medically until the symptoms are severe enough to interfere with basic daily function. There are plenty of options to improve circulation to the lower extremities, and this will depend on the type and severity of blockage that you have. Your vascular surgeon will advise you based on the anatomy of the disease.