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Embracing the palliative care aspects of peripheral artery disease (PAD): the vascular surgeon's perspective

Abstract The words 'palliative care' do not immediately conjure images of a surgeon, especially not a vascular surgeon performing a complicated aorto-iliac or carotid revascularization. However, the relationship between vascular surgery care and palliative care is not foreign. In day-to-day vascular practice, patient care is not generally curative but rather palliative as the goals of many vascular interventions are symptom management. Here, we propose that peripheral artery disease should gain a rightful place among palliative care diseases. To achieve such a goal, palliative care practitioners need to recognize the palliative needs of patients with peripheral artery disease. Also, vascular disease care providers need to feel comfortable implementing the tenets of palliative care (enhancing quality of life with symptom management, optimizing patient-oriented decision-making, and encouraging realistic goal setting) as they care for patients with vascular disease. Embracing the palliative care aspects of vascular disease will thus require a multidisciplinary approach to best address all aspects of suffering in peripheral artery disease: the physical, the psychological, the spiritual, and the social.