Effectiveness of Remote Ischaemic Conditioning in Critical Ischemia of the Digitals of Upper and Lower Limbs

Aim: The aim of our study was to determine the effectiveness and safety of remote ischaemic conditioning (RIC) in combination with i.v. prostavasin as a method of treatment for patients with peripheral acral vasculopathy, presenting as critical ischemia of the digitals of upper and lower limbs at the time of presentation with either surgical nor interventional treatment option Method: 33 patients were included in this non-randomized, prospective pilot-study with compassionate use. Primary endpoints were healing of ulcerations and amputation free time, secondary endpoint was safety of RIC. For the RIC, a blood flow reduction in the extremities was held in 2 cycles for over 5 minutes (20 mmHg over the systolic blood pressure) with 5 minutes reperfusion. During this time the medical agents were infused through a superficial vein into index extremity transvenously. The medication included: 2500 i.e., Heparin bolus, 5 μg PGE-1 in a 50 mL syringe with an isotonic solution. In cases where a vascular occlusion was seen in angiography additionally to PGE-1, 20 mg rt-PA was infused. Results: In 33 cases, transcutaneous oxygen partial pressure (TcPO2) levels increased significantly from 33 ± 16 mmHg to 48 ± 13 mmHg (p=0.0005) after the therapy compared to baseline. In 33 cases there was an improvement from 55 ± 27 mmHg to 73 ± 27 mmHg (p ≤ 0.004) in the acral arterial pressure measurement. 31 patients showed significantly better perfusion and vascularisation of the ischemic extremity after the therapy demonstrated in acral oscillography (31/94%) and angiography (6/18%). In 16 cases ulcerations (n=20) healed after 15 sessions of RIC. There was no need of any major or minor amputation in all patients. Conclusion: The presented RIC therapy proved to be an effective and safe treatment in addition to best medical treatment for patients with acute acral vascular disorder, especially in acute digital ischaemia, without a surgical or an interventional option.