ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Patients with critical limb ischemia desperately need treatments to stave off gangrene and the amputation of their lower limbs. Current revascularization methods buy time by unblocking arteries, but don’t really heal the sites of disease. With a noninvasive leg wearable that delivers therapeutic ultrasound, Vibrato Medical aims to increase blood flow that supports the body’s healing process.
Patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI), which is the worst form of peripheral artery disease, face a dire prognosis, starting with a one-year mortality rate of 25%. Because narrowed, hardened arteries deprive the lower leg and foot of blood flow, 45% of patients will experience nonhealing ulcerations of the lower extremity, causing them immobility, pain, social isolation, and infection that can give rise to gangrene. Within one year of a CLI diagnosis, 15-20% of patients will suffer an amputation, and things go quickly downhill from that point. Following the amputation, 40% of patients will die within two years. Although one doesn’t hear as much about critical limb ischemia, which affects two million people in the US, its mortality rate is worse than that of heart failure, stroke, and most cancers.
