According to THE SAGE GROUP, Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) is a Major and Growing Problem

BEAUFORT, S.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CLI&src=ctag” target=”_blank”gt;$CLIlt;/agt; lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CLI?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#CLIlt;/agt;–At the 15th annual Critical Limb Ischemia Session of the New
Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) meeting in New Orleans, Mary L. Yost,
President of THE SAGE GROUP, spoke on “The Scope of Critical Limb
Ischemia (CLI).”

“Between 2.0 and 3.4 million people currently suffer from CLI in the
U.S.,” stated Yost. “By 2030 CLI is expected to increase to 4.7 million
due to the aging population. However, if the prevalence of diabetes
continues to increase at the same pace as the last 20 years, this
estimate will be conservative.”

CLI, or ‘end-stage’ peripheral artery disease (PAD), is characterized by
rest pain, ulcers and gangrene.

Commenting on disease costs, Yost stated, “CLI is expensive to treat,
accounting for the majority of PAD costs. CLI is more costly to treat
than less severe disease, which combined with the increasing number of
patients treated, has resulted in CLI becoming a major economic burden.
These costs are especially significant for taxpayers because Medicare
pays 73% of the CLI bill.”

“Costs increase with disease severity,” Yost explained. “Rutherford 6
patients with gangrene cost more to treat than Rutherford 4 and 5 with
rest pain and ulcers respectively, which in turn, cost more than
intermittent claudication (IC) patients. CLI expenses are driven up by
multiple factors including unplanned readmissions and undertreatment of
risk factors. Suboptimal medical management increases morbidity and
mortality leading to expensive diabetic and cardiovascular
hospitalizations.”

“Amazingly, revascularization is underutilized in CLI patients, even
versus IC patients,” she declared. Between 25%-33% of CLI patients are
treated with primary amputation, which is more expensive than
revascularization. Higher hospital costs of major amputation reflect
more frequent and expensive complications, in-hospital mortality and
revision procedures,” she stated.

“The tragedy is that earlier diagnosis of CLI and appropriate treatment
could save lives and limbs,” concluded Ms. Yost. “This would also save a
tremendous amount of money.”

Additional information on NCVH and the agenda can be found at: https://www.ncvh.org/meetings/annual-conference-2019/agenda.php.

THE SAGE GROUP, a research and consulting company, specializes in
peripheral vascular disease in the lower limbs, specifically chronic
venous disease (CVD), PAD, CLI, IC, diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) and the
costs and consequences of amputation.

Additional information: www.thesagegroup.us.

Contacts

THE SAGE GROUP
Mary Yost, (404) 520-6652
yost@thesagegroup.us