What is Peripheral Artery Disease?
PAD, or Peripheral Arterial Disease, is a serious disease that affects about 8 million Americans. The most common cause of peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a hardening of the arteries, known as atherosclerosis. Similar to the well known condition Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) which deals with hardening of arteries within the heart, PAD can occur in any peripheral artery outside the heart that supplied blood to your limbs. Most commonly, peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects circulation in the legs and feet.
As cholesterol and other fats that commonly circulate within the blood begin to build up or collect on the arterial wall, these deposits of fats harden into plaque. This hardening process is called Athersclerosis. Plaque formations can grow large enough to significantly reduce the blood's flow through an artery – even create blockages over time. When leg arteries are hardened and clogged, blood flow to the legs and feet is reduced, resulting in pain, poor circulation and a variety of complications that can greatly affect the quality of life.
Graduated sequential compression therapy is one of the best ways to manage this disease and is designed to augment arterial blood flow and microcirculation. This process is clinically proven to accelerate healing of ulcerative wounds and preserve limbs. As compression chambers inflate, they induce a biologically mediated vasodilatory effect helping blood to flow more efficiently.