Introduction:

Peripheral vascular diseases include a varied number of nosologic entities that affect the arterial (excluding heart and intracranial vessels) and venolymphatic systems of the organism.

Objective:

To characterize patients who needed to be treated by a vascular surgeon after presenting some type of peripheral vascular disease.

Method:

A descriptive and prospective study was carried out in all the patients treated by external consultation and to the patients hospitalized in the service of Vascular surgery of the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security and "Manuel Ignacio Montero Valdivieso" Hospital. The study lasted two years ( from September 2014 to October 2016). The following peripheral vascular diseases were taken into account: peripheral vascular diseases, chronic venous insufficiency, diabetic foot, deep-vein thrombosis and acute arterial thrombosis. The results were expressed in this paper with absolute and relative frequencies.

Results:

Chronic venous failure was the most frequent cause of hospitalization and outpatient consultation. A prevalence of female sex was found. The diabetic foot ulcer was observed in a decreasing order of frequency. Surgical debridement and/or surgical cleaning were the most used procedures. Major amputations were performed in all patients who had an acute arterial thrombosis of the lower limbs.

Conclusions:

It was possible to characterize the patients treated by the vascular surgeon in Ecuador, as well as the most frequent peripheral vascular diseases attended that needed outpatient consultation and hospitalization.