Good news for people with advanced diabetes. You can avoid one of the most devastating complications of the disease - amputation by a laser technique that uses ultraviolet energy to restore blood flow to blocked arteries.



People with diabetes and others with high blood pressure at high risk for losing a limb because of severe diffuse atherosclerosis of the legs are included by the study on the laser technique. Though, bypass surgery is the gold standard treatment for prevention of limb loss, these patients were considered poor candidates for this treatment.



‘Without the laser intervention as many as half of the patients would probably have lost a limb during that time. This laser definitely seems to have a role to play in treating patients with the very worst disease who are facing amputations, Washington Hospital Center interventional cardiologist John Laird, MD, who led the study, tells WebMD.



Via: Fox News