2016 AHA/ACC Guideline on the Management of Patients With Lower Extremity Peripheral Artery Disease: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines

. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Sep 21.

Published in final edited form as: Circulation. 2016 Nov 13;135(12):e726–e779. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000471


Recommendation for Pentoxifylline

COR	LOE	Recommendation

III: No Benefit	B-R	Pentoxifylline is not effective for treatment of claudication.^200,203

See Online Data Supplement 26.		In a Cochrane review of 24 studies with 3377 participants, there was large variability in study design and results between individual studies, and therefore the review's effectiveness was unclear.²⁰³ Pentoxifylline was shown to be generally well tolerated.²⁰³ In a multicenter RCT of pentoxifylline, cilostazol, or placebo for patients with moderate-to-severe claudication, there was no difference between pentoxifylline and placebo in the primary endpoint of maximal walking distance.²⁰⁰ Therefore, pentoxifylline is not recommended as treatment for claudication.