Background: Limb salvage is one of the cardinal aims of vascular surgery, but the influence of distal bypasses on amputation rates has been difficult to demonstrate.
Methods: The incidence and indications for major limb amputations and infrapopliteal bypass during two consecutive 16-month periods were analysed.
Results: There was a decrease in the number of major amputations from 34 during the first period to 13 in the second, while the number of bypasses to the infrapopliteal arteries increased from four in the first period to 21 in the second.
Conclusions: An increase in the incidence of bypasses to the infrapopliteal arteries was matched by a decrease in the number of major amputations. Factors that may have contributed to the increase in the incidence of distal bypass and the decrease in the number of amputations include the availability of digital subtraction angiography, and a change in referral patterns within the hospital so that, except for trauma, all patients who were considered to be candidates for major amputation were assessed by a vascular surgeon.