Peripheral arterial emboli.

One hundred eleven patients with 130 emboli treated in nonteaching private hospitals have been evaluated with respect to cause, mortality rate, and amputation rate. For surgically treated patients with balloon embolectomy, the mortality rate was 13.7 percent overall, with a limb salvage rate of 94.5 percent. The operative mortality was 8.3 percent. The mortality for late embolectomy was 3 percent with a limb salvage rate of 100 percent. The most critical factor in predicting mortality was age of the patient, with a significantly higher mortality in patients of advanced years. In this series, a prolonged duration of embolus before embolectomy did not have an adverse effect on the mortality rate.