Team Approach to Critical Limb Ischemia Care and Research.

Critical limb ischemia (CLI) has a high rate of major amputation and mortality due to advance systemic cardiovascular disease. The goals of treating patients with CLI not only include the prevention of limb loss but also to relieve pain, improve quality of life, and prevent death. A multidisciplinary team approach to treating patients with CLI improves limb salvage rates by helping to tailor the best intervention for these patients. In addition, a multidisciplinary team can help address cardiovascular risk modification and wound management to help in decreasing mortality and increase amputation-free survival. This review article intends to summarize the current trends and data in the team approach to CLI care. In addition, we will review the large multidisciplinary study evaluating surgical and endovascular treatments for CLI.