How is vascular claudication treated?

How is vascular claudication treated?

Treating claudication is important because it’s usually an indicator of peripheral artery disease or similar circulatory diseases that are life-changing and even deadly. Treatment can take several forms and your doctor may encourage you to do one or more of the following:

• Quit tobacco. Tobacco use, especially smoking, is one of the biggest risk factors for claudication.
• Walk more. The best type of exercise for claudication is walking. Your doctor can give you resources and information about walking programs that are meant to help people with similar health issues.
• Take prescription medications. These include:
  • Blood pressure medications.
  • Cholesterol-lowering medications.
  • Antiplatelet medications (such as aspirin or clopidogrel, which increase blood flow).

If those treatments don’t work, your healthcare provider may recommend treatment options to increase or reroute blood flow, such as surgery or catheterization. Catheter-based approaches are less-invasive and use a medical device inserted into one of your major blood vessels, which can then treat the narrowed or blocked passage. Your doctor can tell you more about the specific options you have when it comes to this kind of procedure.