Competition of interest: ELC has been paid a consulting fee by and received clinical research funding from Guidant. MFF has received a speaking fee from Medtronic. JSM has been paid a consulting fee by and has received clinical research funding from Guidant, Medtronic, and WL Gore. He has also received research support from Boston Scientific. VMB is a consultant to and owns stock in Guidant. JM has been paid a consulting fee by Medtronic. CZ has been paid a consulting fee by and owns shares in Medtronic.

No abstract

Dramatic shifts in the management of peripheral vascular disease have occurred together with an overall decline in mortality. There seems to be a significant mortality advantage for endovascular as compared with traditional surgery except for carotid endarterectomy. The increasing safety of vascular interventions should be considered when deciding which patients to treat but with the caveat that endovascular interventions are not always safer than open repair.