OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular diseases are of particular public health relevance in Hungary, one of the important areas of this disease group is peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The most serious form of this disease is critical limb ischemia (CLI), the most devastating consequences of it is the lower extremity amputation. The main objective of this study is to analyze the use and consequences of minimally invasiv treatments for the peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in Hungary.

METHODS: Our study is based on the analysis of the health care administrative data for the whole Hungarian population, in 2008-2016. We examined the spread of minimally invasive procedures by overviewing of medical literature and protocols. The costs and expenditures data for minimally invasive interventions were analysed with the methods of descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: In Hungary there is a high number of amputations worldwide, with approximately 7,000 amputations per year (approximately 4900 major and 2100 minor amputations). The access to modern minimally invasive treatments shows a significant difference in Hungary: 40-50 treatments per year in some institutes, 500-1000 treatments per year in other hospitals. The examination of the financing system revealed that today's modern intervention and hybrid techniques can not be reported in Hungary. Our cost analyzes prove that the current weightings of the current DRGs do not cover the direct costs of supplying some typical patient groups.

CONCLUSIONS: The characteristics of amputation highliht the importance of screening, early detection, improved vascular care and an optimal revascularization policy. Introducing professional training and organizational programs in the field of peripheral vascular problems in order to increase the proportion of minimal-invasive procedures and reduce the number of 6800 minor and major amputations per year by 30-35%. Standardization and validation of amputation detection methods and reporting is also essential.