[Operative treatment of arterial occlusive disease: the risk of operation in high age patients (author's transl)].

Comparative study of 2,168 revascularizations and 221 limb amputations at the surgical hospital of Fürth/Bavaria (1970--1977). The lethality rate after arterial reconstructions in older patients, depending on the type of revascularization, was 3.3 per cent up to 21.1 per cent, being considerably lower than after amputation after which 42.5 per cent of the patients died. Therefore vascular surgery should be considered at an early stage of the disease in older patients with problems of circulation, particularly before any limb amputation.