[New aspects in diagnosis and treatment of obliterating thromboangiitis (Buerger disease)].

The nature of arterial occlusive lesions in young smokers is an object of continuous debate commencing from 1879 when Winiwarter for the first time described a vascular syndrome which he called «obliterating endarteritis». However, in 1908 Buerger published his works hav.' lg become classical and then his monograph (1924) dedicated to this disease for which he used a new name «obliterating thromboangiitis» which further on became a generally accepted term. Diagnosis of obliterating thromboangiitis was made very often in the past. The occurrence of this disease is considerably lower nowadays than 20 or 30 years ago; therefore, the last 10-15 years have witnessed no publication of serious works on this subject. It should be underlined that obliterating thromboangiitis is an independent disease differing fundamentally from atherosclerosis with considerably less frequent occurrence.