In people with diabetes and critical limb ischemia (CLI), surgical revascularisation leads to fewer major amputations but has higher in-hospital mortality than endovascular revascularisation, an observational study shows.

Researchers analysed data for more than 1.2 million hospitalisations from the 2002-15 US National Inpatient Sample database.

Over the period, about one in three patients underwent revascularisation (either surgical or endovascular), hospitalisations and leg revascularisations increased, and hospital mortality declined, the authors reported in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.

They went on to match patients undergoing endovascular and surgical revascularisation, and showed that patients who underwent surgical revascularisation had an 18% higher rate of in-hospital mortality but a 25% lower rate of major amputation.