Do the patients with chronic peripheral arterial disease know about the rules of walking traning?

Introduction: Intermittent claudication, manifesting as a compulsion to stop walking severely limiting patient’s mobility is a frequent symptom of peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Walking training promotes elongation of walking distance and causes an increase of the quality of life. TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus implies that revascularisation should be considered only if patient does not respond to medical treatment, that is drug therapy and training.

Aim of the study: The study was performed to determine whether patients qualified for endovascular procedures were sufficiently informed as to possibilities of medical treatment, especially training.

Material and methods: 52 patients (46 man and 6 woman) with peripheral artery occlusive disease (Fontaine IIb/III) qualified to revascularization were examined. All patients were previously treated either in vascular ambulatory or by general practitioner from 3 to 10 years.

Results: Only 7.7% of the patients sufficiently knew the rules of walking training, 65.3% of patients did not follow the rules of walking training; 27% of patients followed indication “to walk more”, without knowing details about walking training; 100% of patients knew about detrimental influence of smoking on progression of their disease.

Conclusions: General practitioners, vascular surgeons and angiologists fail to inform patients about other treatment modalities, especially walking training. The rule of “walking a lot” seems to be insufficient without detailed information about training. Patients with claudication are educated as far as the influence of smoking on the disease is concerning.