PubMed1980
The authors studied the conditions of the return to work of 65 patients, with a maximum age of 55 years, after reconstructive arterial surgery. Of the 51 patients who were working at the time of the operation, 46 (90.2%) had started working after an average period of 97 days, but only one of the patients who were no longer working started work after the operation. If the nature and more especially the site of the operation is analyzed, the highest level of return to work was after aorto-iliac surgery (96,4%), with a lower level (81%) after femorotibial operations. In a small group of 6 patients operated upon for aneurysms (of which 5 were aneuryms of the abdominal aorta), 4 had started work again, but after a longer period of 4 months on average. These results are compared with those obtained by a British team in Newcastle (Waters, Proud, and Chamberlain) who conducted a similar study in 1977. These overall results prove that reconstructive arterial surgery is favourable from the social and occupational point of view, as very large proportion of the operated patients continue working, and some of them start work again after having stopped their occupation before the operation.