Peripheral arterial disease can often progress to non-salvageable limb and require an amputation varying from minor amputations to major amputations.

Knowledge of the types of amputations is essential to the vascular surgeon in providing patients care.

Typically, amputations are required as a consequence of:

• severe infection,
• ischemia,
• trauma, or
• malignancy.

According to the Amputee Coalition, nearly two million people are living with limb loss in the United States. For 54% of those people, the main cause was vascular disease. Furthermore, approximately 185,000 amputations occur each year. Imagine if some or all of these had been offered the option of limb salvage.

The reality is that limb salvage should be the goal, first and foremost, but this requires awareness and specially-trained limb salvage specialists.