The intra-arterial Permanent Perfusion With Prostaglandin E1 for Limb Salvage in Cases With Severe Inoperable Occlusive Diseage in Stage IV

Since January 1978, we have been using prostaglandin (Pg) E1 in our department as a last attempt in advanced inoperable arterial occlusive disease in stage IV. We were able to report about first encouraging results with this substance at the 27th International Congress of Cardiovascular Surgery in June 1978 in Lyon, at the annual meeting of the German Society of Angiology in September 1978 in Heidelberg, as well as at the 11 th Congress of the Austrian Society of Vascular Surgery in October 1979 in Graz. We have learned the latter described technique from Shionoya in Nagoya who has been successfully employing this substance in Buerger’s disease since 1976 (5, 6). Apart from one report by Carlson and Erikson (1) from 1973, there are — as far as we know — no publications about the administration of Pg E1 in vascular diseases in the European and Anglo-American literature. Only recently have there been first reports about treatments with Pg E1, e.g. Sethi (4).