[Acute Leriche syndrome in a previously healthy woman: differential diagnosis of embolic occlusion].

The case report describes an acute total ischemia of both legs in a young otherwise healthy woman. Based on the patient's history, the physical findings and further investigations, the differential diagnosis is discussed. The emergency procedure with a successful desobliteration of a strictly localized arteriosclerotic plaque by Fogarty catheter was followed by open thrombendarterectomy 10 days later because of a persistent stenosis. Finally the clinical manifestations of such rare occlusive disease of the aorta are discussed as well as the bilateral ischemic syndrome of the lower extremities originally described by Leriche in 1940.