The British journal of surgery
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Reconstructive surgery for critical leg ischaemia (CLI) increased in both hospital- and population-based patient samples over 12 years. In the referral centre amputation numbers were unchanged over this period, although amputation carried out for patients with CLI decreased from 58 to 35 per cent. ⋯ Amputation rates as a measure of the efficacy of an arterial reconstruction policy should be used only on a population basis. The analysis is skewed by selection bias in referral centres.