The BEST-CLI trial: a multidisciplinary effort to assess whether surgical or endovascular therapy is better for patients with critical limb ischemia

Abstract Critical limb ischemia (CLI) is the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease and is associated with a risk of limb loss. This vascular condition is currently treated with limb revascularization by surgery or endovascular intervention performed by a variety of specialists. Because both open vascular bypass and the less invasive endovascular therapy can be performed in selected patients with CLI, there exists significant disagreement as to which therapy should be performed first and which is more successful. The paucity of comparative effectiveness data to guide treatment of CLI has prompted a multidisciplinary effort to organize the Best Endovascular Versus Best Surgical Therapy in Patients With CLI (BEST-CLI) trial. The BEST-CLI trial is a pragmatic, multicenter, open-label, randomized trial that compares best endovascular therapy with best open surgical treatment in patients eligible for both treatments. BEST-CLI aims to provide urgently needed clinical guidance for CLI management by using a pragmatic design comparing the effectiveness of established techniques while allowing for the introduction of newer therapies as they become available; a novel primary endpoint that includes limb amputation rates, repeat intervention, and mortality; a multidisciplinary structure that fosters cooperation among interventional cardiologists, interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons, and vascular medicine specialists; and novel techniques to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and quality-of-life outcomes of the two treatment strategies being tested.