Aortoiliac Occulsive Disease

This is called Leriche's syndrome. I had never heard of this disease until I recently had a patient that had been diagnosed. This patient had undergone surgery to resolve his condition. It is an atherosclerotic disease of the aorta and possibly but not always both iliac arteries. The main symptoms include: claudication of buttocks, thighs, fatigue in the lowers limbs, inablility to maintain a penile erection. It was first discovered in 1814 by a man named Robert Graham. But it was named for a French surgeon, Rene' Leriche, who first treated the conditon of a 30 year man. Treatment can be done with surgery by an aortoiliac bypass graft or an axillofemoral and femoral-femoral bypass, depending on the severity of the disease.