A study of thirty-nine cases of arterial embolectomy.

Thirty-nine patients with 46 limbs at risk underwent arterial embolectomy. The overall mortality was 36% (14 patients). Seventeen limbs (37%) had a poor result. The high mortality is related to the severe underlying medical problems. The patients were divided into two groups: those who actually had embolism (n = 25) and those who had acute thrombosis in previously diseased arteries (n = 14). Those finally diagnosed to have embolism had lower mortality (24% versus 57%) and better limb salvage rates (93% versus 6%) when compared to those with thrombosis. However, the two groups are difficult to distinguish preoperatively. The delay from onset of symptoms to the operation varied between a few hours to over a week and this was not related to the outcome. Thirteen percent of the arterial occlusions were in the upper limb. All of these were due to embolism and there was no mortality for this group with all affected arms achieving a good outcome.