Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of vascular intervention for the treatment of lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease(LEAOD) in the elderly. Methods A retrospective analysis was made of the clinical and follow-up data from 120 patients (146 limbs) with LEAOD undergoing percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) at the Department of Vascular Surgery of Chifeng Municipal Hospital from July 2014 to December 2015, and the remission of clinical symptoms and the incidence of complications were recorded. Depending on data type, SPSS statistics 17.0 was used to perform the statistical analysis and t test or Chi-square test was employed for comparison. Results The success rate of intervention was 97.95%(143/146) , and no case died. A statistically significant rise was observed after the procedure in the internal diameter of the dorsal foot artery [(1.16±0.32)vs(1.34±0.33)mm], the blood flow [(0.52±0.12) vs (0.66±0.13) ml/(s·mm²)], ankle brachial index[(0.36±0.11) vs (0.65±0.08)], lame distance [(34.53±8.72) vs (633.78±32.56)m] and skin temperature [(30.03±0.91)℃ vs (33.56±3.45)℃]. The peak velocity of the blood flow [(51.31±7.85) vs (41.51±6.82) cm/s] and visual analogue scale [(7.12±1.95) vs (0.65±0.12) scores] were all significantly lowered after the procedure. All the differences were statistically significant (P＜0.05). The limb preservation rate was 100.0%(143/143) within 24 months after the procedure, and no case died. The incidence of restenosis or occlusion was 35.0%(50/143) in 48 patients, with 8 undergoing a second PTA. Conclusion Vascular interventional therapy is effective and safe for LEAOD in the elderly patients.