Bryan Kay
VVT Medical receives endorsement letter from AVF on CPT coding guidance...
VVT Medical recently announced that the American Venous Forum (AVF) has provided an official opinion letter regarding CPT coding guidance for the ScleroSafe percutaneous...
First-in-human study of SonoThrombectomy system completed
SonoVascular has announced the successful initiation of its first-in-human study (FIH) of the company's SonoThrombectomy system, an ultrasound-facilitated, thrombolytic-enhanced platform that utilizes multiple mechanisms...
Inari Medical updates ClotTriever XL IFU amid FDA recall notice
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Class I recall—the most serious type—for Inari Medical's ClotTriever XL, 30mm device due to reports...
SCVS issues call for abstracts as deadline approaches for 2025 symposium
The Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) has issued a call for abstracts for its 2025 Annual Symposium, with just under two weeks left...
Eastern Vascular Society set to stage day of service during 2024...
The Eastern Vascular Society (EVS) has incorporated a day of service into its 2024 annual meeting, being held in Charleston, South Carolina (Sept. 19–22).
Leading...
‘Choosing the right devices for the right patients’: Surgeon-scientist secures NIH...
Michael Conte, MD, recently used his 2024 Veith Lecture to call on young vascular surgeons on the peripheral arterial disease (PAD) frontlines to drive...
Vascular Specialist–August 2024
In this issue:
‘Choosing the right devices for the right patients’: Surgeon-scientist secures NIH funding to develop MRI technique for precision PAD care
SVS...
Survey of off-label treatment of complex repair pinpoints factors behind underreported...
The potential for cost and time to be key factors in low levels of outcomes data reporting emerged during a national survey of the...
One-year STRIDE study data show ‘meaningful’ limb salvage, mortality and QoL...
One-year outcomes from the STRIDE study of the Indigo aspiration thrombectomy system (Penumbra) for lower-extremity acute limb ischemia (ALI) showed target limb salvage and...
PRESERVE II trial shows robust five-year outcomes
Five-year outcomes the PRESERVE II pivotal trial of Cook Medical’s Zenith branch iliac graft (ZBIS) demonstrate “sustained safety and effectiveness” when combined with the...
Grasping the nettle: The need to tackle PAD problem head on...
Huge opportunities abound for vascular surgeons to take a leadership role on the frontlines of a developing peripheral arterial disease (PAD) treatment crisis in...
A calling seeded in childhood: Uniting vascular surgery for the betterment...
Many attending the 2024 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM; June 19–22) might have been unaware of the early life of 2023–24 Society for Vascular Surgery...
Gore announces first commercial implant of Gore Tag thoracic branch endoprosthesis...
Gore has announced the first commercial use of the Gore Tag thoracic branch endoprosthesis (TBE) in Canada.
The news came as Canadian government health authority...
Young vascular surgeons on the PAD frontier: ‘This is the time...
Huge opportunities abound for vascular surgeons to take a leadership role on the frontlines of a developing peripheral arterial disease (PAD) treatment crisis in...
Vascular Specialist@VAM Conference Edition 3
In this issue:
Chickasaw Nation study exemplifies how diversity can boost patient access to specialized vascular care
Young vascular surgeons on the PAD frontier:...
‘We are in this together’: SVS president set to issue call...
SVS President Joseph Mills, MD, is set to issue a rallying call steeped in classical history and decades of collected vascular surgery wisdom in...
Vascular community has a role to play in ensuring safety of...
Physician-sponsored Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) trials have an important role to play in the continued development and refinement of aortic endovascular devices, attendees of...
Vascular Specialist@VAM Conference Edition 2
In this issue:
Attendees welcomed to ‘more inclusive, more innovative, and more educational’ VAM
Endovascular CFA treatment associated with increased rate of long-term...
Twin global burdens of growing PAD prevalence and vascular workforce shortfall...
A growing prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) across the world parallels a deteriorating PAD landscape in the U.S., underscoring a need for more...
Vascular-VP: ‘The blueprint for what a quality vascular program should look...
Some of the benefits to quality care provision ensuing from participation in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and SVS Vascular Verification Program (Vascular-VP)...
Vascular Specialist@VAM Conference Edition 1
In this issue:
The Crawford Forum: Quality in care is this year’s critical issue
National Coverage Determination: Data and discussion come at key moment...
Rutherford lecture at world federation session set to feature vascular low...
The director of the Vascular Low Frequency Disease Consortium (VLFDC) is set to be among the headline presenters at this year’s World Federation of...
Verified vascular! Quality care in vascular disease
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and American College of Surgeons (ACS) Vascular Verification Program (Vascular-VP) will be a central focus on the opening...
Vascular Specialist–June 2024
In this issue:
Verified vascular! Quality care in vascular disease will form a central backdrop to this year’s Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM)
VAM...
‘What if we could translate the most durable Dacron repair into...
Imagine a world in which the enduring Dacron graft, birthed by vascular pioneer Michael DeBakey, MD, some 70 years ago as an open repair...
We are not ‘and vascular’: SVS set to launch ambitious new...
SVS secretary details the spirit and the cause behind the next phase of the Society’s branding campaign aimed at helping vascular surgery become an...
Vascular Specialist–May 2024
In this issue:
Questions linger: BASIL-3 does not find for drug-eluting technologies for CLTI
Guest Editorial: Aortas, open surgical skills and gratitude
Vascular training:...
‘Who let a vascular surgeon in the room?’: Leadership in the...
Leading vascular surgeons from across the globe contributed pearls of wisdom on how to go about tackling inevitable turf battles from other specialties practicing...
New randomised data show cyanoacrylate glue performs strongly on patient satisfaction
Patients undergoing cyanoacrylate glue closure for superficial venous disease reported higher periprocedural satisfaction than those who were treated via surgical stripping, data from a...
Vascular surgery Entrustable Professional Activities available to view
The American Board of Surgery (ABS) has unveiled the 15 proposed core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) that will be evaluated in vascular surgery residents.
They...
The ability of ChatGPT to further patient education and aid surgeons
ChatGPT 4.0 was able to provide a mean accuracy rating of 4.4 on a Likert scale of 5 (1=very poor; 5=excellent) across 15 patient-level...
Statewide performance metric ‘profoundly’ increases rate of EVAR surveillance
A statewide collaborative between 35 hospital systems and a large insurance provider showed that the implementation of a performance metric linked with financial reimbursement...
CX united: Vascular world set to converge with challenging cases
The World Federation of Vascular Societies (WFVS) is bringing the vascular world together at CX 2024 to chew over both challenging cases and leadership...
Bad reading: How to claw back negative revenue?
Five frequently performed vascular surgeries at a prominent New Orleans-based health system between 2019 and 2022 yielded an average yearly decrease in net revenue...
Study details link between increased functional status and improved survival in...
Increasing functional status in vascular patients fitted with a prosthesis after amputation was incrementally associated with improved survival, a retrospective analysis of a 10-year...
Vascular Specialist–April 2024
In this issue:
Bad reading: Worrying new data demonstrate a consistent shortfall of more than a fifth in net revenues over a four-year period...
Getinge and Cook Medical enter US commercial distribution agreement for iCast...
Getinge and Cook Medical today announced an exclusive sales and distribution agreement for the iCast covered stent system, which recently received Food and Drug...
FDA Breakthrough Device designation granted for DynamX BTK for use in...
Elixir Medical has announced Breakthrough Device designation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its novel DynamX BTK System, an implant for use...
Bentley, Cook Medical enter US distribution agreement for BeBack device
Cook Medical and Bentley today announced a distribution agreement for the BeBack crossing catheter in the U.S., with Cook assuming commercial responsibilities for the...
SCVS 2024: Bismuth becomes 2024–25 Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery president
Jean Bismuth, MD, took over as Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) president during the organization's 51st Annual Symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona (March 16–20).
The...
Ruth Bush takes over as AVF president in Tampa
Ruth Bush, MD, associate dean in the Office of Educational Affairs at John Sealy School of Medicine, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB),...
Purchase tickets for SVS Foundation Gala’s ‘Night at the Museum’
Ticket information is available for the SVS Foundation’s “Night at the Museum—A Celebration of Science” Gala during the 2024 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM 2024)...
Gain discount on premier vascular review resources
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is encouraging members to pre-purchase the sixth edition of the Vascular Education and Self-Assessment Program (VESAP6), a premier...
SVS seeks nominations for vice president
The SVS has opened the nomination period for the position of SVS vice president, with the deadline set for March 15. Anyone can nominate/self-nominate...
SVS invites new compensation study participation, former participants to update information
In 2023, the SVS collaborated with Phairify to launch a compensation study to provide vascular surgeons with tailored insights into compensation, practice and productivity...
New data underscore physician experience levels required to derive benefit from...
Data from a new study that maps out the levels at which adverse postoperative events decrease following transfemoral carotid artery stenting (TfCAS) based on...
New analysis points to lack of vascular surgical voices in news...
A new study set to be aired at the 2024 Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) annual meeting (March 16–20) in Scottsdale, Arizona, sheds...
Vascular Specialist–March 2024
In this issue:
Learning curve: New data underscore physician experience levels required to derive benefit from transfemoral carotid artery stenting
New analysis points to...
IVUS use in claudicants not associated with improved outcomes, claims data...
The use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for the treatment of claudication doubled over a four-year period but there was “no clear relationship between IVUS...
CLOUT registry: Interim two-year rates of PTS ‘significantly lower’ than those...
Rates of post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) among deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients treated with the ClotTriever thrombectomy system (Inari Medical) who are logged in the...
FORS-powered LumiGuide 3D imaging technology is rolled out at specialized centers...
Andres Schanzer, MD, has hailed it "one of the most exciting changes" seen in imaging during the course of his career. Philips’ LumiGuide "human...
Mechanical thrombectomy demonstrates superior outcomes to anticoagulation in DVT patients, analysis...
Mechanical thrombectomy using the ClotTriever device (Inari Medical) for iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis (DVT) was found to be “associated with significantly” lower Villalta scores...
Large administrative databases enter crosshairs as comparative analysis shows percutaneous mechanical...
The pitfalls of large administrative databases came to the fore during the presentation of a propensity-match scoring analysis demonstrating that percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (MT)...
As temporal trends in hemodialysis access creation emerge, notion of AV...
The 2024 Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) annual meeting (Jan. 24–27) hears three separate talks—two scientific papers and one from an invited guest...
More than half of medical students altered Match ranking order after...
Amid the build-up to residency Match Day 2024, the Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery (APDVS) has delivered data from a VISIT (Vascular...
Vascular Specialist–February 2024
In this issue:
SAVS outgoing President David L. Cull details his journey to the heart of diversity, equity and inclusion
More than half of...
Breakthrough Device designation granted for Efemoral scaffold system designed to treat...
Efemoral Medical has announced the granting of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Device status for its novel Efemoral vascular scaffold system (EVSS) designed...
SAVS 2024: A journey to the heart of DEI like no...
David L. Cull, MD, delivers a captivating presidential address, laying bare his own challenging journey as a vascular surgeon and the hidden lessons on...
Re-evaluating aortoiliac endarterectomy: Case series shows ‘acceptable durability’
The uncommonly performed aortoiliac endarterectomy—one of the open procedures on which the vascular surgical specialty was founded—provides acceptable durability in aortoiliac occlusive disease patients...
‘Get a Pulse on PAD’: Multi-society public awareness campaign launched
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), in partnership with three other medical societies operating in the vascular disease space that form the PAD Pulse...
UK MHRA update: Paclitaxel-coated device increased mortality risk is withdrawn for...
Following a review, the United Kingdom's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has updated guidance on the use of paclitaxel-coated devices stating that such devices...
First patient enrolled in HERCULES randomized trial comparing ESAR and EVAR
The first patient has been enrolled into the HERCULES trial, which compares endosuture aneurysm repair (ESAR) to standard endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in the treatment of abdominal aortic...
First patient treated in ZFEN+ fenestrated endovascular graft study
Cook Medical has announced the first patient treated in the clinical study of the Zenith Fenestrated+ endovascular graft (ZFEN+) in the U.S. The procedure was...
Viabahn VBX stent graft receives FDA approval
Gore has announced recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a lower profile Viabahn VBX balloon expandable endoprosthesis (VBX stent graft) for the treatment...
Southern Vascular elects first woman president-elect
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) elected Margaret (Megan) Tracci, MD, to become its first ever woman president for the 2025–26 cycle.
Tracci,...
Coding: Increasing complexity and lost RVUs—a drop in the ocean?
A vascular surgery team at Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, uncovers “staggeringly low” numbers of correctly coded billing for...
First procedures announced in study of novel peripheral IVL system
FastWave Medical has announced the successful completion of enrollment for its first-in-human (FIH) study with the company’s peripheral intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) technology.
The prospective, single-arm...
Vascular Specialist–January 2024
In this issue:
Coding: Increasing complexity and lost RVUs—a drop in the ocean?
The utility of renal stenting in hemodialysis patients: one in five...
U.S. Aortic Research Consortium maps out F/BEVAR preoperative risk factors for...
A series of preoperative risk factors—including currently smoking, chronic kidney disease (CKD), congestive heart failure (CHF), aneurysm size greater than 7cm, more advanced...
The utility of renal stenting in hemodialysis patients: One in five...
A fifth of patients among a chronic kidney disease (CKD) cohort on hemodialysis—a rare subset pulled from a large repository of national data—were able...
SCAI, SIR, SVS jointly publish proceedings from multispecialty peripheral IVUS roundtable
Proceedings from an expert consensus roundtable that discussed the benefits of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in lower extremity revascularization procedures were released today in the...
Vascular Specialist’s top stories of 2023
Which stories captured the attention of the vascular community over the course of the past year? Read our summary of the trending articles from...
First patient treated in ARISE II study of ascending stent graft
Gore has announced the first patient implantation of the company's ascending stent graft in the ARISE II trial, describing this as an exciting step...
Society for Vascular Surgery addresses latest mainstream media reports on atherectomy
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has issued a statement addressing the latest reports published by ProPublica on atherectomy use in the U.S.
The nonprofit...
‘There is no reliable way to measure carotid stenosis—methods have changed...
The recent move to expand Medicare coverage of carotid stenting formed the basis of a recent debate over the wisdom of the decision taken...
Need for ‘clear, well-defined guidelines’ in patient selection for surgical implantation...
The emergence of a baroreflex activation therapy device for heart failure patients is drawing in the assistance of the open surgical expertise of vascular...
Changing course: The natural history of tibial claudication comes under scrutiny...
In the end, reflected Michael S. Conte, MD, “it’s not the evidence.” The leading vascular surgeon and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) expert made the...
Enrollment complete in APEX-AV study of mechanical aspiration system for acute...
Patient enrollment is now complete in the APEX-AV trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of the AlphaVac F1885 (AngioDynamics) multipurpose mechanical aspiration system for...
Vascular Specialist–December 2023
In this issue:
Changing course: The natural history of tibial claudication comes under scrutiny as interventions for "relatively benign" disease trend upward
Our guest editorial...
Intravenous anesthesia delivery during varicose vein treatment proves safe and reduces...
A new intravenous anesthesia delivery technique used during endothermal ablation for varicose veins demonstrated comparatively low pain scores according to first-in-human (FIH) data recently...
Specialty representation at all levels of a healthcare organization is ‘increasingly...
A 14-year effort to achieve departmental status for vascular surgery at a large healthcare system in Southern California resulted in significant gains for the...
Vascular Specialist–November 2023
In this issue:
Carotid revascularization: Getting to the right decision
SVS reveals proposed changes to Society bylaws
Meta-analysis: The complete patient-level dataset on paclitaxel and...
Carotid disease: Getting to the right decision
The recent move by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand coverage for carotid artery stenting brought with it the requirement...
DETOUR1 and DETOUR2 pooled analysis of bypass system reveals primary rate...
Endologix has announced results from a pooled analysis of the DETOUR1 and DETOUR2 studies evaluating percutaneous transmural arterial bypass (PTAB) with the Detour system.
The Detour system...
Researchers report 30-day outcome data for pair of investigational carotid stenting...
Thirty-day results from two trials assessing the performance of investigational carotid artery stenting systems—the Neuroguard and the CGuard—were recently presented at VIVA 2023.
Stenting with...
Computer-assisted vacuum thrombectomy system for patients with pulmonary embolism demonstrates ‘rapid,...
Patients undergoing computer-assisted vacuum thrombectomy with the Indigo Aspiration System (Penumbra) for pulmonary embolism (PE) showed 2.7% rates of both major adverse events (MAEs)...
Six-month outcomes from phase-one trial of anti-inflammatory drug to assess benefit...
The open-label phase of the DEXTERITY-AFP trial investigating the Bullfrog microinfusion device—which involves the perivenous injection of the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone to improve patency...
Highlighting original work by women: Peer-review title blazes new trail in...
The September issue of Annals of Vascular Surgery featured 37 original, peer-reviewed scientific papers whose lead authors and researchers are women vascular surgeons. Here,...
Women’s champion: Freischlag marks out value of diversity and surgeons as...
Julie A. Freischlag, MD, used her turn as honorary guest lecturer at the 2023 Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) annual meeting to make a...
NESVS 2023: Cambria takes over as New England SVS president
Robert Cambria, MD, recently took over as president of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery (NESVS). He was passed the presidential baton by...
NESVS 2023: Novel IVC filter retrieval device slashes procedural time and...
An inferior vena cava (IVC) filter retrieval device dubbed the next-generation in removal of the venous thromboembolism-fighting tools could substantially cut procedural times and...
CMS confirms broadened Medicare coverage of carotid artery stenting in final...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its final decision regarding National Coverage Determination (NCD) 20.7 covering carotid artery stenting (CAS),...
Vascular Specialist–October 2023
In this issue:
Preventing spinal cord ischemia: Novel techniques for direct segmental artery revascularization show promise
Eastern Vascular: New data chart underrepresentation of women...
EVS 2023: New data chart underrepresentation of women at the head...
The underrepresentation of women vascular surgeons in national clinical trial leadership formed the central theme of data coming out of a new study that...
MVSS 2023: Human Acellular Vessel proves ‘safe, effective bypass conduit’ in...
An investigator-sponsored clinical study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, of the investigational Human Acellular Vessel (HAV) in patients with chronic limb-threatening...
MVSS president outlines why vascular surgery is special and how ‘people...
Outgoing Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) President Jeffrey Jim, MD, used his recent presidential address to call upon vascular surgeons to spread the word...
EVS 2023: Putting artificial intelligence to use in vascular practice
The potential for large language-learning models like ChatGPT to take over tedious writing tasks such as emails and parts of PowerPoint presentations—or even be...
WVS 2023: President emphasizes importance of ‘tolerance’ in vascular specialty
Outgoing Western Vascular Society (WVS) President Wei Zhou, MD, used her presidential address to put out a call for the vascular specialty to embrace...
Preventing spinal cord ischemia: Novel techniques for direct segmental artery revascularization...
A vascular surgery team from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles demonstrated the feasibility of multidisciplinary direct revascularization of segmental arteries...
VasQ AVF creation device receives FDA clearance
Laminate Medical Technologies has announced their flagship device, the VasQ external vascular support, has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for...
New clinical data support AI solution for improved PE detection and...
Viz.ai has announced new clinical data supporting advancements in pulmonary embolism (PE) detection. Two studies have demonstrated the real-world clinical efficacy of Viz.ai’s PE module to...
WVS 2023: Western Vascular Society presidency passes from Zhou to Fujitani
Roy M. Fujitani, MD, president of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Medical Center medical staff, took over as Western Vascular Society (WVS) president...
SVS-ACS Vascular Verification Program marks release of new standards for outpatient...
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) have released new standards for outpatient vascular centers to help them...
SAVS makes travel scholarship applications call for 2024 meeting
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) has put out a call for applications from medical students and general surgery residents for 20 travel...
SVS launches national smoking cessation initiative
The Society for Vascular Surgery’s Patient Safety Organization (SVS PSO) has formally launched a national smoking cessation initiative. It includes tools and resources to help physicians,...
MVSS 2023: Aulivola takes over Midwestern Vascular reins
Bernadette Aulivola, MD, the division director of vascular surgery and endovascular therapy at Loyola University in Maywood, Illinois, took over as president of the...
EVS 2023: Ozsvath assumes Eastern Vascular presidency
Kathleen Ozsvath, MD, a vascular surgeon at St. Peters Health Partners in Albany, New York, took over as president of the Eastern Vascular Society...
SVS urges members to take part in compensation survey—and bolster results
Organizers behind an SVS-commissioned financial compensation survey are calling on more members to fill out the short list of questions so that they can...
Vascular Specialist–September 2023
In this issue:
When women are PIs: A story foretold on the vascular frontlines
SVS members rally to respond to CMS carotid stenting coverage...
First US patient enrolled in SOCRATES short neck AAA trial
The first U.S. patient has been treated as part of the SOCRATES trial (Short neck AAA randomized trial—ESAR and FEVAR), which compares the safety...
Endovascular stablization system for infrarenal AAAs gains FDA Fast Track designation
Nectero Medical announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for the Nectero Endovascular Aneurysm Stabilization Treatment (Nectero EAST)...
Venous stenting and the IVC: ‘Persistent problems’ in the setting of...
The question of “persistent problems” with venous stenting among post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS) patients emerged as a key talking point during the recent Deep Venous...
First patient treated in global strategic collaboration involving Cydar Maps technology
Cydar Medical has announced the successful treatment of the first patient in a strategic collaboration with Medtronic. The collaboration, which spans 40 sites across...
Clinical performance of Human Acellular Vessel amid war in Ukraine presented...
Clinical outcomes of Humacyte's investigational Human Acellular Vessel (HAV) were presented at the Military Health System Research Symposium in Kissimmee, Florida (Aug. 14–17), following...
SCVS president becomes chair of American Board of Surgery
The American Board of Surgery (ABS) has named Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) President M. Ashraf Mansour, MBBS, as its 2023–24 chair. He...
Light-activated drug-coated balloon granted FDA approval for clinical study
Alucent Biomedical has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted an investigational device exemption (IDE) for a U.S. clinical study of AlucentNVS,...
Vascular Specialist–August 2023
In this issue:
SVS responds to New York Times exposé on overuse of vascular interventions
Long-awaited FDA update finds data do not support excess...
‘Vascular surgery should be a key member of pulmonary embolism response...
“PERT care is the coalition of the willing,” quipped Dennis Gable, MD, a vascular surgeon at Texas Vascular Associates in Plano, Texas. He was...
New study reports positive performance of AI-powered assessment of biomarkers for...
The characterization of aortic tissue by means of three key biomechanics-based biomarkers bundled into a compound Regional Areas of Weakness (RAW) Map showed “very...
Vascular surgery added as named specialty to influential national hospital rankings
U.S. News & World Report has renamed the specialty formerly known as “Cardiology & Heart Surgery” to include vascular surgery in its national rankings of...
SVS Foundation adds two surgeons to board of directors
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Foundation has announced the appointment of Bernadette Aulivola, MD, and Vikram Kashyap, MD, to its board of directors. Both...
Endologix announces first patients treated with the Detour system
Endologix has shared in a press release that the first patients underwent percutaneous transmural arterial bypass (PTAB) using the Detour system since Food and Drug...
Crawford panel looks at opportunities to plug and extend vascular surgery...
This year’s E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum zeroed in on the pipeline of sources feeding the vascular surgery ranks. Incoming SVS President Joseph...
Second edition of VSITE review text released
The second edition of a hit trainee-created textbook primarily aimed at those taking the Vascular Surgery In-Training Exam (VSITE) has hit the shelves.
The Vascular...
Vascular Specialist–July 2023 VAM Review Edition
in this issue:
The numbers are in: VAM 2023 adds up to another SVS classic
Guest Editorial: The Golden Larva Syndrome: Is it...
Surmodics receives FDA approval for the SurVeil drug-coated balloon
Surmodics has announced the receipt of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the SurVeil drug-coated balloon (DCB).
A company press release notes that the...
FDA approves study of ZFEN+ for treatment of aortic aneurysms
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for Cook Medical to initiate an investigational device exemption (IDE) study on the Zenith fenestrated+...
Vascular Verification Program registers first four hospitals in US—including UCSF
UC San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF) is among the first four hospitals in the U.S. to be verified as part of the American College of...
Two-year DETOUR2 study results presented at VAM 2023
Endologix has announced the 24-month results of the DETOUR2 study, presented at VAM 2023, the annual meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS),...
SVS announces new vice president and treasurer following 2023 election
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has announced the latest additions to its officer roll following the 2023 elections for Society vice president and...
BEST-CLI investigators implore a move beyond endo vs. open ‘battle’ in...
The principal investigators behind the BEST-CLI trial struck a conciliatory tone during the inaugural Frank J. Veith Distinguished Lecture yesterday morning in which they...
Vascular Specialist@VAM: Conference Edition 3
In this issue:
BEST-CLI investigators implore a move beyond endo vs. Open ‘battle’ in the name of scientific advance
Presidential address: ‘The annual meeting...
Trainees and students anticipate VAM experience
VAM brings together not only vascular surgeons but also residents, fellows and medical students keen to glean as much vascular education as possible. VS@VAM...
Opening ceremony heralds ‘power’ of VAM attendance
SVS President Michael Dalsing, MD, officially opened the 2023 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) yesterday morning, telling attendees at the early morning Opening Ceremony: “For...
CEA associated with less reintervention than stenting in first six months-study
A durability study that looks at reintervention risk among patients treated with carotid endarterectomy (CEA) versus carotid artery stenting (CAS) procedures established that CEA...
Crawford panel focuses minds on challenges facing vascular surgery workforce numbers
Yesterday's E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum, which looked at ways to address the pipeline of sources feeding the vascular surgery pool of talent,...
Vascular Specialist@VAM–Conference Edition 2
In this issue:
Opening Ceremony heralds ‘power’ of VAM attendance
Von Liebig Forum: Significant life and limb gains for claudicants who stop smoking before...
VAM 2023: President-elect zeroes in on complexity of issues within vascular...
The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum this year probes the problems and the challenges facing the vascular surgery workforce...
Vascular Specialist@VAM–Conference Edition 1
In this issue:
President-elect zeroes in on complexity of issues within vascular surgery pipeline
‘First’ study to identify endothelial cell-cell communication via bidirectional secretion...
The essential ‘need’ for vascular surgeons in pulmonary embolism treatment paradigm
The specter of pulmonary embolism (PE) as a common and lethal disease process—with mortality of massive PE static at about 50% for decades while...
Vascular Specialist–June 2023 VAM special
In this VAM 2023 preview issue:
The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) beckons: "Our annual gathering is almost here. After months of planning, our premiere...
SVS webinar discusses BEST-CLI and early impacts on practice
A recording of the inaugural “SVS Presents” virtual educational session, on the BEST-CLI (Best endovascular vs. best surgical therapy in patients with critical limb...
A vascular mission: Defying assumptions in the fight against amputation in...
Lyssa Ochoa, MD, is used to the assumptions. One: ”What a nice program you have.” Another: “It must be so nice that you can...
CX 2023: Venous, we have a perception problem
Venous disease care has a problem with optics in the context of growth in the number of venous procedures and the spectre of inappropriate...
Vascular Specialist–May 2023
In this month's issue:
BASIL-2 points towards endovascular-first revascularization strategy in CLTI patients (p. 1 and 3)
A vascular mission: Defying assumptions in the...
Cook Medical treats first patient in first-in-human clinical trial for venous...
Cook Medical recently announced that the first patient has been treated in a clinical study to evaluate a new venous valve designed for treating...
Surmodics announces successful first patient use of Sublime radial access microcatheter
Surmodics has announced that Ankur Lodha, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Institute of the South in Lafayette, Lousiana, and Pradeep Nair, director...
FDA approves IDE for pivotal study of high-intensity focused ultrasound platform
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an investigational device exemption (IDE) application for the VEINRESET multicenter pivotal study that will evaluate Sonovein...
Robotic surgery: ‘We’ve missed the boat on this,’ says Houston vascular...
An emerging program at Houston Methodist aims to help prod those practicing in the vascular surgical space deeper into the field of robotic surgery.
The...
Vascular Specialist–April 2023
In this issue:
SVS, American College of Surgeons (ACS) launch new quality verification program (p. 1 and 3)
SCVS 2023: Endovascular-first or -only approach...
Creating an AI-based tool to help clinicians perform precision AAA analysis
For University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, vascular surgeon Randy Moore, MD, the route to a world of precision care for individual abdominal aortic aneurysm...
Tackling health insecurity ‘from the top down and the bottom up’
The feeling of being “uncertain, anxious and vulnerable” defines a creeping health insecurity problem riddling parts of the U.S. patient population—demographics who are underserved...
Getting medical devices to market: The future might not be now,...
The development of medical devices in the vascular space faces increasing challenges amid moves afoot at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to...
Results from PROMISE II pivotal trial published, reinforcing ‘ transformational value’...
Results from the PROMISE II pivotal trial investigating transcatheter arterialization of the deep veins using the LimFlow system in so-called no-option chronic limb-threatening ischemia...
SCVS 2023: Endovascular-first or -only approach to all CLTI patients ‘is...
Michael S. Conte, MD, one of the foremost experts in the field of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), took attendees of the 2023 annual meeting...
Short neck AAAs: ‘Choosing what is best for the patient’
Navigating cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) with short neck anatomy poses a serious challenge to vascular surgeons, but the list of potential options...
First US patient enrolled in Gore Viafort vascular stent pivotal study
W L Gore & Associates (Gore) has announced that the first U.S. patient has been enrolled in a prospective, randomized, multicenter, single-arm study with...
Getinge receives FDA premarket approval for the iCast covered stent system
Getinge‘s iCast covered stent system has received premarket approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with iliac arterial...
Bioprosthetic venous valve: ‘We want to know that this is really...
A key investigator in efforts to tackle chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) with an bioprosthetic venous valve replacement talks about progress being made with surgical...
SCVS 2023: Four decades of AAAs in the US: Rare epidemiological...
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) diagnosis and repair occurs among women almost 10 years later than in men—with similar age-adjusted mortality—the 2023 Society for Clinical...
Shockwave Medical announces US launch of new peripheral IVL catheter
Shockwave Medical announced the full U.S. commercial availability of the Shockwave L6 peripheral intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) catheter following clearance by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
A...
Vascular Specialist–March 2023
In this issue:
Four decades of AAAs in the U.S.: Rare epidemiological study establishes women are diagnosed and repaired 10 years later than men...
Corner Stitch: What I wish I had known in vascular training
Welcome newly matched vascular surgery residents into the fold! I am just over six months into my first attending position after completing my residency...
Venous stenting: ‘We need to evaluate use, appropriateness and clinical indication’
An analysis of venous stent usage trends in the United States from 2014 through 2021 showed a “significant increase” in stents per day placed...
‘Voices of Vascular’ series celebrates Women’s History Month
The contributions of the Society for Vascular Surgery’s women members take center stage this month as part of the SVS Foundation’s “Voices of Vascular”...
Apply for Brandeis health policy program by March 15
Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) members have until March 15 to apply for a scholarship to attend the Executive Leadership Program in Health Policy...
AVF 2023: Results from first US trial of Sonovein delivered
The 2023 annual meeting of the American Venous Forum (AVF) heard the final results from the first U.S. trial of the emerging varicose vein...
AVF 2023: FLASH registry suggests ‘favorable safety and effectiveness profile’ in...
Among 61 high-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) patients followed through to the 30-day visit in the U.S. cohort of the FLASH registry, no mortalities were...
AVF 2023: Investigators report update on three-year first-in-human results for bioprosthetic...
Researchers in Colombia behind the first-in-human study of a novel bioprosthetic venous valve designed to treat chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) reported three-year results among...
AVF 2023: One-year analysis of CLOUT registry reveals ‘significant and sustained’...
Interim one-year outcomes from the multicenter, prospective, single-arm CLOUT registry investigating use of the ClotTriever thrombectomy system in all-comer patients with deep vein thrombosis...
The case for aggressive intervention on symptomatic carotid web
The lead investigator behind new research from a center in Louisiana outlines how his new study—believed to be the largest single-institution analysis of symptomatic...
Five-year outcomes of ESAR in patients with short neck
Cohort analysis shows no migrations, a low rate of ruptures, and positive sac regression, researchers say.
Five-year outcomes in patients with short neck abdominal aortic...
Vascular Specialist–February 2023
In this issue:
Educate, and educate, and educate again: The continuing quest for appropriate venous care (p. 1 and 6)
Likes, dislikes and reposts:...
New book penned by vascular icon charts career in surgery, revolutionary...
A new memoir penned by former Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) President and vascular surgery leader Frank J. Veith, MD, which touches on...
Vascular surgery oral boards text seeks to fill certifying void
Think of it as the omega of the vascular surgical textbook literature, quips Andrew M. Wishy, DO. As a training resource, it fits neatly...
Sudanese vascular association readies for first-ever conference
The Sudanese Association of Vascular Surgeons (SudAVaS) has announced the scientific program behind its first-ever international conference, marking the occasion by celebrating the “first...
First patient enrolled in DEFIANCE trial of the ClotTriever system in...
Inari Medical announced that the first patient has been enrolled in DEFIANCE, a prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the clinical outcomes of patients...
SAVS reveals 2023–24 officeholders, including new president-elect
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) officially announced its 2023–24 slate of officeholders following the conclusion of the recent SAVS annual business meeting.
The...
Bentley launches rebranded crossing catheter
Germany-based endovascular device company Bentley announced the launch of the BeBack crossing catheter—formerly known as the GoBack—designed for the treatment of heavily calcified lesions...
Human-tissue engineered blood vessels remain durable at six years in PAD...
Mid-term results from a phase II study of surgical bypass using the Human Acellular Vessel (HAV) demonstrated an overall secondary patency rate at 72...
Vascular Specialist–January 2023
In this issue:
From SAVS 2023: Study probing which CKD patients would benefit most from renal artery stenting points toward those who experience a...
SAVS 2023: President reveals upcoming change to Society seal
Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) President William D. Jordan Jr., MD, used a portion of his 2023 Presidential Address to outline ways in...
SAVS 2023: Study points toward CKD patients who would most benefit...
A new study probing which chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients would benefit most from renal artery stenting points toward those who experience a more...
SAVS 2023: Planned and unplanned vascular assists found to improve outcomes
An award-winning paper presented at the 2023 Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) annual meeting in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, established an association between...
Summit dedicated to tackling key issues related to women’s vascular health...
Linda Harris, MD, is a prolific attendee on the national and regional vascular meeting circuit, a noteworthy academic vascular surgeon with trainees and papers...
Vascular community starts process of wrestling with findings from BEST-CLI
One of the earliest multispecialty public gatherings of the vascular community following the release of the first results from the BEST-CLI randomized controlled...
Women’s Vascular Summit: Diving into issues around women’s vascular health and...
The Women’s Vascular Summit was established five years ago with the twin purposes of delving deeper into the issues that surround women’s vascular health...
‘Impressive’ 12-month Flex vessel prep data presented at VEITHsymposium
VentureMed Group, a medical device innovator in access management for arteriovenous (AV) fistulas and grafts and vessel preparation for peripheral arterial disease (PAD), announced...
WVS 2022: New evidence of radiation reduction benefit emerges
Surgical augmented intelligence in the form of 3D mapping during complex aortic procedures can decrease radiation exposure, fluoroscopy time and contrast use when combined...
EVS 2022: Weaving magic in academic vascular surgery at JVS
Past Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) group editor-in-chief Peter Gloviczki, MD, invoked his hobby of magic to help illustrate what it requires to take...
MVSS 2022: Study finds no link between frailty score and surgical...
A vascular surgery-specific composite frailty score was not associated with with risk of surgical site infection in patients undergoing lower-extremity revascularization in a review...
EVS 2022: New study shows ‘encouraging increase in academic footprint of...
How does vascular surgery compare to other specialties in the growth of gender diversity in published research? “Are we leaders in the field, or...
Vascular trainee-developed VSITE review book sees sales soar
A new review textbook developed by a vascular surgery resident with the aim of helping fellow trainees prepare for milestones like the Vascular Surgery...
Vascular Specialist–December 2022
In this issue:
Women in vascular: Annual summit dedicated to tackling key issues related to women’s vascular health and female workforce seeks to ‘enable...
BEST-CLI: Optimal medical therapy adherence ‘well below’ recommended level at baseline
A significant proportion of patients enrolled in the BEST-CLI trial did not meet optimal medical therapy (OMT) guideline-based recommendations at the time of their...
Diversifying clinical trials: ‘There needs to be some kind of cultural...
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed lingering mistrust in the U.S. healthcare system among patients from minority communities as physicians continue to confront the conundrum of...
Eastern Vascular gathering challenged to forge next generation of evolution
Evolution was the core theme of the Presidential Address Robert Rhee, MD, delivered from the Eastern Vascular Society (EVS) annual meeting stage in Philadelphia...
Miss the SVS webinars? Take advantage of the recordings
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) hosts a number of Town Halls, roundtables and webinars for the benefit of its members.
In the past few...
Deadline extension: SAVS extends travel scholarship application cut-off for 2023 meeting
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) has announced a deadline extension to Dec. 5 for 20 travel scholarships that are available to medical...
Viz.ai announces positive new data from large aortic dissection AI real-world...
Viz.ai recently announced new data from a large aortic dissection artificial intelligence (AI) real-world study that supports the use of its AI technology for the detection...
Vascular Specialist–November 2022
In this issue:
First data from BEST-CLI are revealed at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions (p. 1 and 12–13)
The Society...
NESVS Robert R. Linton Lecture features complex aortic masterclass from Europe
World-leading aortic surgeon Stéphan Haulon, MD, from the Aortic Centre at Hôpital Marie Lannelongue in Paris, France, took attendees of the 2022 New England...
Virtual visits versus in-person: Telemedicine study detects ‘substantial’ cost savings for...
Virtual consultations appear comparable to care received in-person when it comes to clinical outcomes as well as patient and practitioner satisfaction, a systematic review...
End-stage CLTI: Deep-vein arterialization procedure demonstrates amputation-free survival rate of 66%...
Six-month results from the PROMISE II trial of the LimFlow deep-vein arterialization system showed an overall amputation-free survival of 66%—“well above” the primary endpoint...
BEST-CLI attracts $3.3m funding injection to continue data analysis
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has made a $3.3 million contribution toward the BEST-CLI (Best endovascular vs. best surgical therapy in patients with critical limb...
CEA, TCAR ‘continue to show superior outcomes’ to transfemoral stenting
Researchers led by a vascular team in Indianapolis found that carotid endarterectomy (CEA) remains the most-used strategy in carotid revascularization, with CEA and transcarotid...
New analysis: Four multicenter trials support primary use of drug-coated balloons...
A patient-level, propensity-adjusted comparison of three-year results from a quartet of prospective, multicenter trials support the primary use of drug-coated balloons (DCBs) versus bare...
Abre stent data show ‘struggle to maintain patency’ among post-thrombotic syndrome...
The Abre venous stent demonstrated three-year primary patency rates of 97.1%, 76.5% and 70.4% respectively for non-thrombotic iliac vein lesion (NIVL), acute deep vein...
A recent snapshot of pediatric vascular trauma injuries
A study of major pediatric vascular injuries delivered in the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society (VESS) Paper Session during the 2022 Vascular Annual Meeting...
Study: Combined antiplatelet, NOAC use linked to worse limb outcomes after...
A new analysis that found combined antiplatelet and novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC) therapy after suprainguinal bypass was associated with worse limb outcomes and equivalent...
Gore completes first-in-human implants of Viafort vascular stent
W. L. Gore today announced the first implants of its investigational Gore Viafort vascular stent as part of a recently initiated pivotal clinical study for...
MVSS 2022: Research on hemodialysis access surgery attracts inaugural Midwestern Vascular...
The authors behind a new study that found “significant differences” in hemodialysis vascular access outcomes after first-time arteriovenous (AV) fistula or graft creation “directly related” to...
‘Week of Action’ raises awareness of SVS advocacy activities
From sending emails to lawmakers, posting on social media to amplify legislative issues, and donating to the Society for Vascular Surgery Political Action Committee...
Regional vascular presidents measure state of specialty
Vincent Rowe, MD, and Raghu Motaganahalli, MD, delivered Presidential Addresses at the Western Vascular Society (WVS) and the Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) that...
Slew of regional vascular societies welcome new leaders for 2022–23
A number of regional vascular societies across the U.S. and Canada introduced their 2022–23 slew of officers during their annual meetings across the fall...
NESVS 2022: Study illustrates relationship between increased distance from medical center...
Research detailing that patients traveling farther for complex aortic surgery have higher procedural costs, postoperative imaging costs, and comprehensive one-year costs was among the...
Only a few seats remain for CPVI hands-on skills course
Only a few spots remain available for the Society for Vascular Surgery’s new Complex Peripheral Vascular Intervention (CPVI) Skills Course. Today—Thursday, Oct. 20—is the...
EVS 2022: Study suggests lower rates of aortic rupture, mortality after...
Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) carried out for uncomplicated type B aortic dissections (TBAD) saw worse mortality and aortic-related outcomes when performed in the...
ABRE clinical study 36-month data show ‘long-term durability’ of venous stent...
Medtronic has announced the 36-month final results from the ABRE clinical study. The purpose of the ABRE clinical study was to evaluate the safety and...
Vascular Specialist–October 2022
In this issue:
Regional vascular society presidents measure state of specialty (p. 1 and 4)
Study: Combined antiplatelet, NOAC use linked to worse limb...
Interacting with EMR best practice advisory ‘significantly’ improves AAA screening rates
Positively interacting with best practice advisory notifications is correlated with an increased rate of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening, according to an analysis of...
Roundtable for treating CLTI: GLASS will make it clear
The final of three roundtables on treating Chronic Limb-threatening Ischemia (CLTI) will cover the Global Limb Anatomic Staging System—GLASS.
The virtual roundtable, on GLASS staging...
Terumo Aortic announces new technology add-on payment for Thoraflex Hybrid device...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has granted approval of a new technology add-on payment (NTAP) for Terumo Aortic’s Thoraflex Hybrid device—used...
FLASH results demonstrate ‘excellent safety profile’ of the FlowTriever system in...
Results of the FLASH registry demonstrate the “excellent safety profile” of the FlowTriever system (Inari Medical) in 800 real-world patients.
This is according to Catalin...
New study indicates cost-effectiveness of Denali IVC filter over Option device
Tilting or hooking occurred significantly less often in the process of retrieving the Denali inferior vena cava (IVC) filter than with the Option IVC...
VEITHsymposium to include world federation session
The World Federation of Vascular Societies (WFVS) is set to hold a session in November during the VEITHsymposium in New York City. The 90-minute session...
Trainees step up to learn coding, reimbursement
The Society for Vascular Surgery’s (SVS) efforts in coding and reimbursement work have taken another step forward, with four new doctors now in training...
WVS 2022: Study probes who benefits from EVAR among patients with...
Patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) represent a high-risk group who may not benefit from elective endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic...
Vascular Specialist–September 2022
In this issue:
No time like the present: The moral imperative for advocacy in vascular surgery (p. 2 and 4)
Corner Stitch: Audible Bleeding...
Annals of Vascular Surgery announces special issue dedicated to original work...
The Annals of Vascular Surgery peer-review journal has announced an upcoming special issue dedicated to original work by women that is set to be...
Aortobifemoral grafting in the endovascular era: An exploration of the open...
Aortobifemoral grafting for aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD) probably remains “very safe” in the era of endovascular repair, according to the senior author behind a...
PAD: Endovascular revascularization ‘superior or not significantly different’ in terms of...
A real-world analysis of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients in Canada indicated open revascularization may not offer a long-term benefit over endovascular intervention. In...
Black patients wait more than twice as long as White patients...
Black patients saw significantly delayed care for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAAs), with a Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) analysis showing a median time from hospital...
TCAR: First patient enrolled in ROADSTER 3 post-approval study
Silk Road Medical has announced enrollment of the first patient in ROADSTER 3, which the company claims is the the first prospective, multicenter, single-arm...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories of August 2022
The top 10 most-read stories on the Vascular Specialist website in August included a look at the state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)...
SVS meets AMA membership requirement, retains House of Delegates seat
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has exceeded the necessary compliance threshold required to retain its seat in the American Medical Association (AMA) House...
Clinical outcomes of the ClotTriever system in DVT set to be...
Inari Medical has announced planned enrollment of the DEFIANCE randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is designed to compare the clinical outcomes of patients with...
VQI analysis links high levels of neighborhood deprivation to more severe...
Patients categorized as living in neighborhoods with high levels of disadvantage under the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) measure of community adversity have more advanced...
Engaging with primary care providers ‘critically important’ to improving AAA screening
Matthew Mell, MD, has spent a lot of time looking into issues around screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). The problem, says the chief...
Diversity gains momentum at JVS
The addition of a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) editor at the Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) was found to be associated with more...
Limb salvage in focus: New VAM lectureship, born of a pioneering...
It all started around the late 1970s, early 1980s. Back then, recalls Frank J. Veith, MD, the notion of aggressively pursuing limb salvage in...
AngioDynamics announces FDA clearance of expanded indications for Auryon atherectomy system
AngioDynamics recently announced receiving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance of an expanded indication for the Auryon atherectomy system to include arterial thrombectomy.
The FDA recently...
Vascular experts establish appropriate use of IVUS in peripheral interventions
Royal Philips today announced an important milestone in the evolving standard of care for treating patients with peripheral vascular disease: the establishment of the first-ever...
Vascular Specialist@VAM–July/August Review Edition
In this VAM 2022 conference review issue:
Diversity gains momentum at the Journal of Vascular Surgery (p. 1 and 4)
SVS walking challenge—Vascular Health...
New data suggest patients at AAA repair thresholds can be safely...
Data from the PROVE-AAA cluster-randomized trial (Preferences for open versus endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm) of a novel decision aid to assist...
Pioneering center reports ‘moderate’ success rate with Fiber Optic RealShape technology...
Vascular surgeons from the medical center that pioneered use of the radiation-lowering Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS) imaging modality reported a 62% technical success rate...
Terumo Aortic announces first commercial implant of Thoraflex Hybrid in US
Following the recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Thoraflex Hybrid frozen elephant trunk (FET) device for the treatment of...
Cydar Medical and King’s College London partner on randomized controlled trial...
Cydar Medical has partnered with King’s College London to initiate the ARIA study—a randomized controlled trial to assess the clinical-, technical- and cost-effectiveness of...
Vascular surgery review book seeks to plug hole in VSITE preparation...
When University of Massachusetts Medical School integrated vascular surgery resident Thomas Creeden, DO, was preparing for his first Vascular Surgery In-Training Exam (VSITE), it...
Bolstering the workforce: Session details how to start a vascular training...
The workforce shortage issues set to plague vascular surgery over the next few decades, alongside an aging population and increase in vascular disease, formed...
Off-the-shelf branched endograft for TAAAs demonstrates safety and effectiveness through two...
Two-year target vessel-related freedom from all-cause and aneurysm-related mortality for an off-the-shelf multibranched endovascular device for the treatment of thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs) came...
Vascular Surgery Interest Groups propel students’ awareness and engagement in the...
A study of the impact of Vascular Surgery Interest Groups (VSIGs) can have on piquing awareness and engagement of medical students in the specialty...
An antidote for burnout: Vascular surgeons as hospital administrators
The much-maligned electronic health record (EHR)—sometimes referred to as electronic medical record, or EMR—is not among the causes of burnout, per se, but rather...
Female sex ‘should be considered an independent risk factor’ for new...
A preliminary report lends evidence to support female sex being considered as an independent risk factor for new stroke occurrence after carotid revascularization in...
Diversity in care: ‘From being exclusive to more inclusive’
The role diversity played in the past, how it functions in the present, and where it might take vascular surgery in the future formed...
Eagleton and Shutze: SVS members elect new vice president, secretary
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) announced that Matthew Eagleton, MD, has been elected as the organization's next vice president. The news was revealed...
Vascular Specialist@VAM–Conference Edition 2
Featured in this VAM daily edition:
F/BEVAR has high technical success and low mortality in chronic post-dissection TAAA (p. 1 and 3)
Systemic heparin...
Vascular Specialist@VAM–Conference Edition 1
Featured in this VAM daily edition:
Researchers report higher three-year amputation, reintervention rates in Black and Hispanic CLTI patients (p. 1 and 2)
Six...
Medicare cuts: ‘It is crucially important we stay engaged in the...
Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) members deemed payment and reimbursement among the top advocacy priorities for 2022. A session Wednesday at VAM informed attendees...
Trust, transportation, insurance hamper ‘quality vascular surgery care for all,’ Crawford...
An absence of patient trust in their doctors and hospital systems yesterday morning emerged as a key talking point amid a comprehensive deep dive...
Silk Road to evaluate TCAR in standard surgical risk patients with...
Silk Road Medical today announced a post-market study to evaluate the transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) system in the treatment of standard surgical risk patients...
Regional society leaders look forward to VAM and beyond
We asked the presidents of all five major regional vascular societies in the United States for an update on the latest goings-on in their...
Vascular Live: Variety of vascular concerns on the slate
Be sure to save time for the Vascular Live theater-in-the-round presentations in the Exhibit Hall at the 2022 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) in Boston....
SVS special membership sections stage education sessions
For the first time, all those who are part of the five Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) membership sections have educational presentations geared specifically...
Open repair of infrarenal aortic aneurysm proves preferable to endovascular repair
As part of the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) International Fast Talk session on the morning of Wednesday, June 15, Emiliano Chisci, MD, from San...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in May 2022
News on the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) ballots set to determine the next vice president and secretary, a hard-hitting column about vascular surgery's...
SVS has patient resources and guidelines on strokes
May was Stroke Awareness Month, and the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) and SVS Foundation offer educational resources for Society members to provide as...
Register today for two SVS courses
Registration has opened—along with early-bird pricing—for two Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) in-person courses in coding and reimbursement, and peripheral artery disease (PAD) skills....
Urban or rural: Ensuring access to quality vascular care ‘no matter...
Michael Dalsing, MD, talks to Vascular Specialist about how his formative years growing up in rural Wisconsin, as well as experience of operating in...
Expanded Medicare coverage for TCAR in standard surgical risk patients...
Silk Road Medical today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), through collaboration with the Society of Vascular Surgery's Patient Safety...
Silent coronary ischemia: FFRCT reduces cardiac death, myocardial infarction in carotid...
Diagnosis of silent, or unsuspected, coronary ischemia in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) using fractional flow reserve-computed tomography (FFRCT), with selective postoperative coronary revascularization,...
The ABS-VSB: Extolling the virtues of vascular surgery’s independent board
The evolutionary process by which vascular surgery became a bona fide independent discipline has much to thank the American Board of Vascular Surgery (ABVS),...
Vascular Specialist–May/June 2022
In this re-launch issue:
The Crawford Forum@VAM 2022: SVS President-elect Michael Dalsing discusses this year's topic: "Quality Vascular Care for All—An Aspirational Goal of...
SVS Foundation continues call for VISTA project applicants
The SVS Foundation VISTA (Vascular Volunteers In Service To All) pilot project continues to seek applications for innovative, community-based projects.
The initiative grants support for...
ESVS publishes 2023 guidelines on management of atherosclerotic carotid and vertebral...
The European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) has just released 2023 clinical practice guidelines on the management of atherosclerotic carotid and vertebral artery disease. The...
VentureMed completes enrollment of Flex Vessel Prep system randomized controlled trial...
VentureMed Group recently announced that it has completed enrollment of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) entitled "Flex Vessel Prep prior to PTA for the...
Cloud-based fusion imaging found to improve operative metrics during FEVAR
A single-center retrospective review demonstrated a trend towards shorter operative times, and significant reductions in both iodinated contrast use and radiation exposure during fenestrated...
New long-term data of paclitaxel devices continue to show no increased...
New long-term data from the SAFE-PAD (Safety assessment of femoropopliteal endovascular treatment with paclitaxel-coated devices) study were presented today as late-breaking clinical research at...
Tissue samples show paclitaxel effect in minority of CLTI patients receiving...
Paclitaxel effect was witnessed in tissue specimens of a minority of chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) patients treated with drug-coated balloons (DCBs)—but was not dependent...
Venovo venous stent returns to US market after 2021 recall
BD recently announced that its Venovo venous stent is back on the U.S. market following a recall last year.
In 2019, the company reported that the...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in April 2022
The digital version of the April 2022 issue of Vascular Specialist, the most recent editorial by our medical editor focusing on diversity within the...
FDA approves expanded indications for TCAR’s Enroute stent
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved expanded indications for the Enroute stent system—part of the transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) procedure—to include patients at...
CX 2022: Overtreatment in venous disease: Financial incentives are ‘the elephant...
To combat the “overtreatment problem” in the appropriate care of venous disease, “a concerted, complex, multimodal effort” is required from specialists across disparate parts...
Rockman: A family story of self-identity
Outgoing Society for Vascular Surgery (SCVS) President Caron Rockman, MD, delved into her family history from late-19th century and early- 20th century Russia to...
Terumo Aortic announces FDA approval for Thoraflex Hybrid frozen elephant trunk...
Terumo Aortic today announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of the Thoraflex Hybrid frozen elephant trunk device for commercial...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in March
Among the posts catching Vascular Specialist readers' eyes last month were the digital flipbook version of our March print edition, a new study looking...
Supply & demand: [Private] practice matters
Vascular surgeons in private practice could play a crucial role in alleviating one of the existential problems currently vexing the specialty: The training of...
Interview: SCVS leaders discuss training challenges, position of private practice, diversifying...
Barriers thrown up between the worlds of private or community vascular surgery and academic practice need to be dismantled for the betterment of the...
Vascular Specialist–April 2022
In this issue:
In our April cover story, we report from the Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery (SCVS) Annual Symposium on new evidence that...
Rare case series shows 100% limb salvage in pediatric bone tumor...
A retrospective review of a rare set of pediatric bone tumor resection cases with significant blood vessel involvement has demonstrated 100% limb salvage and...
VAM: How abstracts are selected
The abstracts presented at the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) are the result not just of thorough research, but also...
Cook Medical receives FDA Breakthrough Device designation for Zenith Thoraco+ endovascular...
Cook Medical’s Zenith Thoraco+ endovascular system (Thoraco+) has received Breakthrough Device designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a press release reports.
The company...
SCVS 2022: WIfI score does not predict successful healing after transmetatarsal...
A higher initial Wound, ischemia, and foot infection (WIfI) classification score at initial presentation in chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) patients who underwent a transmetatarsal...
Increased market competition linked to higher odds of revascularization among asymptomatic...
A vascular surgery research team with a growing reputation for its work investigating appropriateness in care in the peripheral vascular bed recently uncovered an...
Diabetes: Impact of local medicolegal landscapes on costs
More litigious U.S. states did not see decreased amputation rates over those where the medicolegal environment was less adverse, according to an analysis of...
SCVS 2022: ‘We should not allow our industry relationships influence how...
Industry players and device makers have helped spark new science and innovation in vascular surgery amid flatlining National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, but...
Apply for health policy program by March 25
Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on March 25 for the joint American College of Surgeons/Society for Vascular Surgery scholarship to...
Vascular Surgery Board seeks director nominees
The Vascular Surgery Board (VSB) of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) is seeking director nominees to serve a six-year term beginning July 1,...
Database analysis findings ‘matched precisely’ with reported reasons for venous stent...
A recent analysis recalled Venovo and Vici venous stents—initiated last year—characterized “significant differences” between reported device and patient issues, and subsequent interventions for the...
Life of Achilles: Turning weakness into bursts of innovation, creativity
Themes rooted in the life of Achilles, the heroic figure from Greek mythology, and the concept of “emotional stamina” underpinned the message delivered from...
PROMISE II U.S. pivotal trial of device designed for ‘no-option’ CLTI...
Enrollment has been completed in the PROMISE II pivotal trial of the LimFlow deep vein arterialization system designed to prevent amputations in so-called "no-option"...
Lesson learned: Entering vascular residency during first wave of pandemic
An insight into the benefits of virtual learning from the perspective of a medical student on the cusp of residency as the early stages...
Vascular Specialist–March 2022
In this issue:
Dedicated vs. non-dedicated: Researchers place venous stenting under the spotlight at the American Venous Forum (AVF) 2022 annual meeting (p. 1 and...
New JVS editorial leadership structure announced
The Executive Board of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) recently revealed the new composition of the Journal of Vascular Surgery (JVS) publications‘ senior...
AVF 2022: Emerging autogenous venous valve formation system sees ‘continual improvement’
An emerging endovenous valve formation system designed to treat patients with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) with evidence of deep venous reflux has demonstrated continual...
AVF 2022: Six-month CLOUT data indicate ClotTriever can effectively remove full...
Six-month outcomes from the ongoing CLOUT registry demonstrate the “safety and efficacy” of the ClotTriever thrombectomy system in a real-world deep vein thrombosis (DVT)...
AVF 2022: VenoValve improvement ‘maintained’ for 2.5 years without adverse events
Envveno Medical announced positive 30-month data from the first-in-human trial of the VenoValve bioprosthetic potential venous valve replacement during the 2022 American Venous Forum (AVF)...
New data add to body of evidence highlighting ‘importance’ of vascular...
Another study has emerged showing vascular surgery’s heavy intraoperative consult activity in a level 1 trauma center setting, lending further fuel to the “vascular...
Complex TAAA: US ARC IDE registry reports better survival vs. real-world...
Patients treated in Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved investigational device exemption (IDE) trials for complex thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs) in the U.S. Aortic...
Vascular Specialist–February 2022
In this issue:
"Vital signs": Reporting from the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) annual meeting on skyrocketing nursing costs and their contribution to...
Index atherectomy interventions for claudication ‘is associated with higher’ reintervention rates...
Atherectomy use during index peripheral vascular interventions in claudicants is associated with higher reintervention rates when compared to other technologies, a newly unveiled study...
Marston: Diversity required to deliver comprehensive care to vascular disease population
William A. Marston, MD, was recalling a recent experience acting as a bone marrow donor for a family member, and the moment it dawned...
Interview: Combating the problem of spin, or overinterpretation, in RCTs
The presence of spin, or overinterpretation, in scientific papers that ultimately demonstrate statistically insignificant findings had been gnawing away at Thomas Forbes, MD, for...
VESS 2022: Novel use of TCAR to treat complex brachiocephalic disease...
A "unique" case series of patients undergoing transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) in which the system was put to novel use for proximal intervention or...
Office-based laboratory setting proves ‘safe’ for iliac vein stenting
A retrospective study of 1,223 iliac vein cases performed in three office-based laboratories (OBLs) demonstrated a major complication rate of 0.41%, suggesting these procedures...
Study suggests more proximal landing zone is preferred for TEVAR of...
A review evaluating the results of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) following acute type B aortic dissection suggests most patients have less than 2cm...
Strength in numbers: Global VASCC COVID-19 project helps identify framework to...
When Robert Cuff, MD, and Max Wohlauer, MD, first launched the Vascular Surgery COVID-19 Collaborative (VASCC) back in the spring of 2020, the pandemic...
SAVS 2022: ‘Recruiting more women without knowing race/ethnicity of those women...
Failure to stratify gender by race or ethnicity, or vice versa, leads to missed opportunities in the recruitment of underrepresented members from the potential...
Medtronic recalls HawkOne directional atherectomy system
Medtronic has recalled 95,110 HawkOne directional atherectomy system devices distributed in the United States between Jan. 22, 2018, and Oct. 4, 2021, the Food...
SAVS 2022: Skyrocketing vascular nursing costs hammer division’s financial bottom line
The profit margin of a vascular surgery division at a prominent health system in New Orleans was severely eroded during the COVID-19 pandemic period—despite...
Formally introducing Christopher Audu
The team at Vascular Specialist—led by Malachi Sheahan III, MD—is pleased to announce the appointment of University of Michigan resident Christopher Audu, MD, as...
Powell: Studies linking EVAR and cancer risk continue to mount
Evidence continues to accumulate of a link between endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) and cancer, with even small amounts of radiation potentially converting epithelial cells...
Vascular Specialist–January 2022
In this issue:
"Strength in numbers": Global VASCC COVID-19 registries have already helped identify a framework to tackle delayed cases with applicability both inside...
SVS PAD course postponed
The new Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) Skills Course has been postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic recent surge in cases,...
VIVID study on Duo venous stent system now fully enrolled, Vesper...
Vesper Medical recently announced the completion of enrollment in its pivotal study—VIVID (Venous stent for the iliofemoral vein investigational clinical trial using the Vesper Duo venous stent...
CLI at a crossroads: Which direction now?
Vascular surgery once again finds itself at a crossroads, Michael Belkin, MD, chief of the division of vascular and endovascular surgery at Brigham and...
Wei Zhou: Prepared for change—and a more diverse, vocal generation of...
There was something of a different pulse to some of the matters around this year’s Western Vascular Society (WVS) annual meeting, recalls Wei Zhou,...
Venous disease: SVS DEI Committee seeks survey participants
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is calling on vascular surgeons to complete a survey focused on patterns...
Vascular Specialist–December 2021
In this issue:
*This issue went to press before Congress moved to address cuts to Medicare due to kick in Jan. 1, 2022.
"Countdown to...
Smoking status ‘should not deter nor delay’ endovascular intervention in femoropopliteal...
Smoking does not seem to affect reocclusion rates, interval to reintervention and the total number of interventions in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) patients with...
PTFE crural bypasses: ‘Very acceptable patency, excellent limb salvage is obtainable...
“The mantra I always use with fellows is bad vein, bad bypass.” Those were the words of Gregg Landis, MD, system chief of vascular...
New attending call model aimed at fatigue mitigation produces ‘stable’ workflow
A “paradigm shift” in attending call staffing with a focus on fatigue mitigation can be undertaken in a vascular surgery practice without disruption to...
Canadian Vascular: Spin in RCTs
A large proportion of statistically nonsignificant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) yielded interpretations that were inconsistent with their results, according to an analysis of 31...
Re-emerging from the pandemic: ‘What truly motivates us?’
How to find “flow” and motivation through goal setting, and reacquainting with “intrinsic priorities” on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, formed the...
Open repair: In good hands?
The twin issues of center volumes for open AAA repair as well as training implications came under the spotlight at two recent regional vascular...
‘Female sex predicts reintervention after elective EVAR for AAA’
Females were found to be at greater risk of reintervention following elective endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) at both the...
Journey of a trainee surgeon-scientist: Mentorship, passion and the importance of...
In August, University of Michigan general surgery resident W. James Melvin, MD, picked up the coveted Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Foundation Resident Research...
Study: Early thrombosis after iliac stenting for venous outflow occlusion is...
Fewer than 10 days of low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) after stenting for extensive iliofemoral venous occlusion prior to transition to oral anticoagulation reduces early thrombosis,...
VEITH 2021: Researchers present ex vivo demonstration of fluoroscopy-free complex AAA...
“I think this represents the beginning of the end of an era where we have to use lead to perform these procedures.” Those were...
VEITH 2021: Two-year follow-up data from EVAS2 IDE study delivered
The confirmatory EVAS2 clinical study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Endologix's Nellix endovascular aneurysm sealing system (EVAS) for the treatment of infrarenal...
Viz.ai reveals launch of new AI-powered modules for pulmonary embolism, aortic...
Viz.ai—a company focused on artificial intelligence (AI)-driven intelligent care coordination—today announced the U.S. commercial launch of its AI-powered modules for pulmonary embolism (PE) and...
Interview: The value and utility of surgical sketches
W. Michael Park, MD, was first turned onto the utility and wonder of anatomical sketching during medical school. Back then, he developed an affinity...
Vascular Specialist–November 2021
In this issue:
"In good hands?" The twin issues of center volumes for open AAA repair as well as training implications came under the...
Trainee wellness: ‘No one really prepared me for the failures’
Communication and an awareness of how often vascular surgery fails emerged as key talking points during a Vascular Surgery Interest Group (VSIG) Lunch Symposium...
SVS: Impact of Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule remains threat...
The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule released Nov. 2 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) doubles down on the...
Julie A. Freischlag becomes president of American College of Surgeons
Newly installed American College of Surgeons (ACS) President Julie A. Freischlag, MD, called for her fellow surgeons to apply the principles that underpin enhanced...
Envveno Medical reports successful completion of first VenoValve surgery in US...
Envveno Medical—formerly Hancock Jaffe Laboratories—recently announced that the first VenoValve surgery in the company’s SAVVE US pivotal trial for the VenoValve has been successfully...
WVS 2021: Western Vascular Society names new president-elect
University of Southern California (USC) vascular chief Vincent Rowe, MD, took over as the new president of the Western Vascular Society (WVS)—with University of...
WVS 2021: Community surgeons report improved rAAA survival after adoption of...
Overall survival improved from 71% to 80% after a group of community practice surgeons started using an endovascular-first approach to ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in September
Five-year data from the ACST-2 trial comparing carotid endarterectomy and carotid artery stenting, a report from the Crawford Forum at the 2021 Vascular Annual...
Three-year VIVO results back ‘continued safety and effectiveness’ of Zilver Vena...
Three-year results of the VIVO clinical study support the continued safety and effectiveness of the Zilver Vena venous stent (Cook Medical) in the treatment of symptomatic...
Vascular Specialist–October 2021
In this issue:
"Not all cuts disappear": We take a look at the threat posed to vascular surgery—and the office-based lab (OBL) setting in...
Registry data show greater clot chronicity on post-procedure inspection than initially...
Nearly half of patients deemed pre-procedurally to be suffering an acute case of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) turned out to have a “much more”...
‘TCAR yields high technical success with an extraordinarily low stroke and...
Outcomes in a cohort of patients who consented to one year of follow-up after transcarotid revascularization (TCAR) treatment for carotid stenosis in the ROADSTER...
One-year results show ‘superior’ primary patency rate for Eluvia DES compared...
One-year results presented at Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) 2021 in Las Vegas (Oct. 5–7) from the EMINENT trial demonstrated the superiority of the Eluvia...
IN.PACT AV DCB sustained ‘superior’ effectiveness in subgroups with high reintervention...
Several subgroups of patients treated with the IN.PACT AV drug-coated balloon (DCB) for arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) demonstrated a “statistically significant” higher rate of target...
VIVA 2021: IVL ‘consistently’ treats real-world calcium in multiple peripheral vessel...
An interim analysis from the DISRUPT PAD III observational study showed that intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) performs “consistently well” across challenging peripheral vessels, lesions and...
Vascular surgeons found to ask twice as many closed- versus open-ended...
Patients reported they mostly felt their provider was adequate in terms of engaging in shared decision-making during asymptomatic vascular consults, according to a qualitative...
Study detects no difference in adverse outcomes from balloon dilatation strategy...
Avoiding a strategy of post-stent balloon dilation during transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) may be unnecessary—a “contradistinction” to results shown in conventional transfemoral carotid artery...
Two-year Ranger DCB data demonstrate ‘sustained, high rate’ of device efficacy
Patients treated with Boston Scientific’s Ranger drug-coated balloon (DCB) sustained “improved primary patency” with fewer reinterventions than those treated with uncoated devices, two-year results...
VIVA 2021: IN.PACT Admiral DCB found to provide ‘high five-year freedom...
Real-world data drawn from the IN.PACT Global study looking at five-year freedom from clinically driven target lesion revascularization (TLR) among prespecified chronic total occlusion...
VIVA 2021: Consensus established for appropriate use of IVUS in peripheral...
A worldwide committee of 40 cross-specialty medical experts achieved what was hailed as the first-ever consensus for the appropriate use of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)...
Cuts to Medicare: ‘As vascular disease complexity increases, reimbursement for complex...
Outgoing Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) President Kellie Brown, MD, has seen fundamental changes to the way vascular surgery is practiced during her 20...
AI and transforming vascular surgery
The 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) Roy Greenberg Distinguished Lecture saw delegates hear about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to transform vascular surgery....
VQI partners with Symmetric Health Solutions to improve device identification accuracy
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) has announced a partnership with Symmetric Health Solutions aimed at elevating the consistency and...
UCLA-SVS review course starts Oct. 1
There’s less than a month left to register for the Sixth Annual UCLA-SVS Symposium set to take place Oct. 1 to 3 at the...
Endologix launches randomized study of Alto EVAR device
Endologix today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in the company’s JAGUAR study to compare outcomes for the company’s Alto abdominal stent...
EVS 2021: Vascular surgery as ‘an enabling service’ for the wider...
Vascular surgery is as important as anesthesia in providing a safe operating room (OR), Richard Powell, MD, the vascular section chief at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical...
Key players behind first SVS AUC on claudication unpack details of...
Vascular surgeons have a history of going the extra mile to do the right thing for their patients. So went the theme of one...
CMS creates new billing code for central venous vascular access system
Bluegrass Vascular Technologies announced today that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized a new Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS)...
Terumo Aortic announces first commercial implants of RelayPro in US
Terumo Aortic today announced the first commercial implants in the U.S. of its RelayPro thoracic stent-graft system. This follows the recent approval by the...
Vascular Connections–September 2021 (Review Edition)
In this VAM review issue:
Outgoing President Ronald L. Dalman, MD, deals with the challenges of COVID-19 and the future direction of the Society...
Vascular Specialist–September 2021
In this issue:
We hear from five vascular surgeons on the latest signal around paclitaxel-coated balloon (PCB) use in patients with peripheral arterial disease...
Significant reintervention after F-BEVAR ‘does not negatively impact survival’
Patients who underwent reinterventions after fenestrated and branched endovascular aneurysm repair (F-BEVAR) had improved long-term survival over those who did not undergo a secondary...
‘Do we need to do a better job of making devices...
It was a burning question posed from the conference floor, and it led to some approving social media nods in its aftermath: Does the...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in August
Our recent editorial on the status of the interview, one of the Presidential Addresses from the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM), a slew of new...
MVSS 2021: Midwestern Vascular unveils 2021–22 leadership changes
The Midwestern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) announced a new slate of officers at its 2021 annual meeting held in Chicago from Sept. 9–11. Raghu...
European launch: Medtronic receives CE mark for 200mm and 250mm IN.PACT...
Medtronic has announced the European launch of the 200mm and 250mm IN.PACT Admiral drug-coated balloons (DCBs) following CE mark approval. The product is intended to treat long...
PAD: R3 Vascular reports ‘successful initiation’ of first-in-human study of bioresorbable...
Medical device developer R3 Vascular has reported the "successful initiation" of a first-in-human clinical study evaluating the technical and clinical performance of its Magnitude...
Physicians draw attention to Medicare cuts as PAD Awareness Month kicks...
A coalition of physicians and other interested parties focused on peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has called on Congress and the Centers for Medicare and...
‘Tremendous advances in imaging possibilities’ signal further innovation, says leading vascular...
It was a complex repair in the thoracoabdominal region of the aorta around 10 years ago, and Matthew Eagleton, MD, and his surgical team...
Spotlight: Melina Kibbe, James Black and Firas Mussa
Melina Kibbe, MD, has been named the 17th dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and chief of the Health Affairs Office...
USPSTF expands screening recommendation for prediabetes, type-2 diabetes to adults aged...
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued an updated recommendation statement suggesting clinicians screen for prediabetes and type-2 diabetes in overweight...
VAM discussion on latest paclitaxel meta-analysis yields mix of caution, skepticism
A Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) sponsored session on paclitaxel safety drew a mix of skeptical and cautious responses to the latest meta-analysis from interventional...
Veterans with claudication who undergo revascularization ‘significantly more likely to have...
Patients within the Veterans Affairs Administration healthcare system who underwent an intervention for intermittent claudication (IC) were consistently at three-to-four times greater risk of...
Gore Excluder IBE ‘effectively prevented common iliac artery aneurysm enlargement’
Five-year results from the U.S. prospective, multicenter study evaluating endovascular repair of iliac aneurysms using the Gore Excluder iliac branch endoprosthesis (IBE) were presented...
Dalman: Meeting challenges of COVID-19, SVS future direction head-on
In his introduction to the second of two Presidential Addresses on the 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) slate, new Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS)...
Medical therapy linked with low early mortality in type B aortic...
Medical management of type B aortic intramural hematomas is associated with low early mortality but a 19% risk of aortic-related intervention—primarily for proximal descending...
Colombian researchers report positive 24-month results for VenoValve
Promising two-year results for an emerging potential prosthetic venous valve replacement—which is about to commence a U.S. pivotal trial—were announced at the Vascular Annual...
Doubling down on quality: Hodgson lays out path to tackle inappropriateness...
It was supposed to occur at the canceled 2020 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM), but finally given his time at the podium, 2019–2020 Society for...
SVS announces future launch of vascular verification program, aiming to enhance...
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), in partnership with the American College of Surgeons (ACS), today (Thursday, Aug. 19) announced the future launch of...
TCAR has ‘statistically equivalent’ stroke and death outcomes to CEA, new...
Silk Road Medical has announced positive results from an independent analysis of standard surgical risk patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) for atherosclerotic carotid...
Crawford Forum on multispecialty vascular care: ‘We can work together’
New Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) President Ali AbuRahma, MD, put on an E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum at this year’s Vascular Annual...
VAM set to feature special breakfast sessions for medical students
A pair of breakfast sessions aimed at medical students—and potential future vascular surgeons—will form part of the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) Aug. 19.
The...
‘The future is very bright for venous valve replacement’
The progress of two “promising” new devices in the venous valve replacement space were outlined during a Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) special session co-hosted...
Past presidents Hodgson, Dalman open VAM 2021
The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) officially made its in-person comeback this morning (Wednesday, Aug. 18) in San Diego. Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Immediate...
Summit to discuss aortic arch: The ‘next new frontier’
This year’s Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) Aortic Summit will focus on the “next new frontier” in vascular surgery—endovascular treatment of the aortic arch.
“We want...
Indianapolis vascular surgeon selected for National Academy of Medicine fellowship
Vascular surgeon Andrew Gonzalez, MD, has been selected as the 2021–2023 National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Omenn Fellow. NAM fellowships enable talented, early-career scholars combining...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in July
The digital version of our July 2021 print issue, an argument in favor of a multidisciplinary approach to limb salvage and look back at...
Carotid endarterectomy shows ‘improved long-term durability’ over transfemoral carotid artery stenting
An increased postoperative stroke rate associated with transfemoral carotid artery stenting “seems to extend up to five years’ follow-up” compared to carotid endarterectomy. This...
UPMC study probing stress-reduction interventions among high-burden specialties begins enrollment
A new study aiming to establish whether a series of mindfulness and physical interventions can help reduce stress and burnout among physicians who treat...
RelayPro thoracic stent graft approved by FDA
Terumo Aortic today (Friday, Aug. 6) announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval of the RelayPro thoracic stent-graft system for...
Vascular Specialist–August 2021
In this issue:
The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) is nigh, and the specialty is grappling with several pressing issues across a number of fronts....
Study of amputees finds referral for prosthetics to be an independent...
Prosthetic referral was an independent predictor of long-term survival among patients who had undergone lower-extremity amputation, new findings set to be published in the...
VenoValve granted FDA Breakthrough Device designation
Hancock Jaffe Laboratories today (Wednesday, Aug. 4) announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Device Designation status to the company's...
Surmodics announces successful first patient use of Pounce thrombectomy system
Surmodics has announced that J. Michael Bacharach, MD, a vascular interventionalist/cardiologist at North Central Heart, a division of Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls,...
‘VSITE predicts Qualifying Exam success’
The Vascular Surgery In-Training Examination (VSITE) is “highly predictive” of a Vascular Qualifying Examination pass for examinees following both the integrated vascular surgery (0+5)...
Special session on diversity enters VAM agenda
Over the course of more than a year, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been brought into sharp focus by a compendium of events...
VESS session: ‘Concerted effort’ made to feature science, discussion from widest...
At its very essence, says Vascular & Endovascular Surgery Society (VESS) President Jason T. Lee, MD, vascular surgery is a “social sport.” The specialty...
‘COVID-19 sparks diabetic macrophage inflammation’—award-winning paper
When patients with diabetes are infected with coronavirus, specialized macrophage cells—already primed to develop excessive inflammation in this population—are further transformed into a pathologically...
Endologix receives FDA Breakthrough Device designation for ChEVAS system
Endologix announced the company’s ChEVAS (chimney endovascular aneurysm sealing) system has been granted a Breakthrough Device designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The...
Medicare: Surgical Care Coalition urges Congress to halt proposed cuts to...
The proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for calendar year 2022 (CY2022) released Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) fails to...
The vasculature united: Bringing together competing specialties for better patient care
Incoming Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) President Ali AbuRahma, MD, knows the topic of this year’s E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum at the...
WFVS undergoes transformation, looks for vascular ’haves‘ to better help ‘have...
The World Federation of Vascular Societies (WFVS) has entered a new era of transformation, seeking to better pave the way for disparate vascular surgeons...
Fighting the good fight: The case for multidisciplinary limb salvage in...
Dramatic increases in rates of diabetes—particularly among Black females—through 2060 underscore the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach to limb salvage, according to Vincent...
Vascular Connections–August 2021 (Preview Edition)
In this special VAM preview issue:
Incoming SVS President Ali AbuRahma, MD, talks through this year's E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum: "The vasculature...
Surmodics builds thrombectomy portfolio with acquisition of Vetex Medical
Surmodics recently announced that it has acquired privately-held Vetex Medical Limited, expanding the company's thrombectomy portfolio with a second Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k)-cleared...
Vascular Specialist–July 2021
In this issue:
"Fighting the good fight: The case for multidisciplinary limb salvage in face of increasing diabetes, diversifying nation" (p. 1 and 6)
...
Janssen submits new drug application to FDA for rivaroxaban to treat...
The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson recently announced it has submitted a new drug application (NDA) to the Food and Drug Administration...
A lifetime of achievement: Former SVS president looks back on career...
The first time Bruce A. Perler, MD, attended the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) annual meeting, he was a young faculty member who...
SVS clinical practice guidelines on popliteal artery aneurysms published
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has released new clinical practice guidelines to ensure that patients with popliteal artery aneurysms receive appropriate treatment and...
SVS Town Hall on June 30 hones in on value of...
The next Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Town Hall will focus on the value of an office-based lab (OBL) to the healthcare system, patients...
Adjunctive compression to standard prophylaxis for postoperative VTE shows benefit in...
Among patients with a Caprini score of ≥11 who received standard prophylaxis for venous thromboembolism (VTE), adjunctive intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) resulted in a significantly...
OBL: Keys to success in the outpatient setting
The ability to pivot in the face of changes to reimbursement while still meeting the needs of patients is a key facet of success...
Spotlight: Outstanding women in business award
American College of Surgeons (ACS) President-elect Julie A. Freischlag, MD, CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Health and a past president of the Society for...
The top 10 most popular Vascular Specialist stories in May
A pointed letter aimed at electronic health record (EHR) behemoth Epic, an argument in favor of endovascular treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAAs)...
VAM plans for San Diego shape up: ‘The June gloom will...
Registration for the live, in-person 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) has begun—and organizers promise you won’t want to miss the meeting.
VAM will be...
Stenting found to be superior to atherectomy, balloon angioplasty in reducing...
Stenting reduced mortality risk in patients undergoing interventions for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) by more than 30% when compared to plain balloon angioplasty, and...
AI triage solution for PE and aortic dissection receives FDA clearance
Medical imaging artificial intelligence (AI) specialist, Avicenna.AI, recently announced that it has received certification in the U.S. and European Union (EU) for CINA CHEST, its...
Vascular Specialist–June 2021
In this special issue:
Members of the SVS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee introduce a multi-part special, featuring personal stories of overcoming prejudice,...
Elevating women in vascular surgery
Over a one-year period, Association of American Medical Colleges data showed that 25% of women in surgery reported experiencing disrespect based on their gender,...
Lead vascular surgeon on first use of Fiber Optic RealShape in...
Vascular surgeons at the University of Massachusetts became the first in the United States to carry out procedures using the breakthrough imaging technology Fiber...
‘Disproportionate decrease’: Vascular surgeons see buying power fall, study finds
Inflation-adjusted Medicare reimbursement rates for the 20 most common vascular surgical procedures decreased by more than 20% in the last decade, a new analysis...
Medtronic issues updated patient management recommendations on Valiant Navion recall
Medtronic has announced that it has sent physicians updated patient management recommendations related to its voluntary recall of the Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft...
Former SAVS president David Rosenthal dies at 76
Renowned vascular surgeon David Rosenthal, MD, co-founder of the Atlanta Vascular Society and a former president of both the Southern Association for Vascular Society...
Candidates for 2021-22 SVS vice president revealed
The candidates in the running to be the next Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) vice president—and a future SVS president—have been unveiled.
They are William...
TCAR vs CEA: Research shows fewer myocardial infarctions after TCAR with...
A Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) analysis uncovered a reduction in the risk of myocardial infarction after transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) compared to carotid endarterectomy...
Registration for VAM 2021 now open
Registration and housing opened today for the 2021 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM), which takes place Aug. 18–21 in San Diego.
Educational programming is ready to...
The top 10 most popular stories from April
Our April cover story on the links between electronic health records (EHRs) and physician burnout, the continuing problem of manels (or all-male speaking panels)...
MicroStent to treat PAD below the knee receives FDA breakthrough device...
Micro Medical Solutions (MMS) recently revealed Food and Drug Administration (FDA) breakthrough device designation for its MicroStent vascular stent. This novel technology is designed...
Vascular Specialist–May 2021
In this issue:
Frank Veith, MD, makes the case for EVAR being "the treatment of choice" for ruptured AAAs (p. 1 and 6)
Malachi...
Hitting the spot: EVAR for rAAA should be ‘treatment of choice’...
If the equipment and requisite skillset are available, and a patient’s anatomy is suitable, endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAAs)...
Interventions associated with ‘poor’ two-year relief of intermittent claudication symptoms
Peripheral vascular interventions for intermittent claudication were linked to "poor" two-year relief of symptoms in the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) database, a new study...
Enrollment starts in postmarket studies of WavelinQ endoAVF system
Enrollment has begun and the first patients have been treated in the postmarket surveillance study, CONNECT-AV, of the WavelinQ (BD) endovascular arteriovenous fistula (endoAVF)...
Wearable device for AV fistula remote monitoring shows promise—but faces commercial...
A new wearable device designed to remotely monitor arteriovenous (AV) fistulae function in dialysis access patients uncovered promising data, leading one set of researchers...
SAVS issues 2021–2022 officer line-up
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) has announced its officer slate for 2021–2022. Incoming president is William A. Marston, MD, professor in the...
SoundBite peripheral crossing system gains FDA approval
Soundbite Medical Solutions has announced Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) approval for the SoundBite crossing system—Peripheral (SCS-P) with the 0.014” active wire (14P).
The...
Plans revealed for pilot study on performance of EVAR for AAA...
Details of a planned pilot study investigating the merits of performing endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) on abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in office-based labs (OBLs)...
SVS seeks nominees for prestigious community practice award by May 1
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is on the lookout for candidates for the next Excellence in Community Service Award, with the deadline for...
PAD: Endologix acquires PQ Bypass
Endologix recently announced completing the acquisition of PQ Bypass, a medical technology company pioneering a first-of-its-kind technology that addresses severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD).
PQ...
Surgeons react to reintroduction of bill that aims to increase access...
The recent reintroduction of the bipartisan Amputation Reduction and Compassion (ARC) Act—aimed at improving peripheral arterial disease (PAD) education, increasing access to PAD screening...
VenoValve: Chronic venous insufficiency device gains brisk double of first US...
Hancock Jaffe Laboratories recently revealed that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the first patent covering the company’s VenoValve. The patent is...
Patients with AAAs who had COVID-19 may need ‘more frequent surveillance’...
Patients who have known abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), who may have had a COVID-19 infection, might need to have more frequent or a different...
Next SVS Town Hall to discuss post-pandemic practice
The next SVS Town Hall will deal with vascular practice's path forward from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event is intended to help...
First pulmonary embolism patient enrolled in FLAME study
Inari Medical has announced the enrollment of the first high-risk pulmonary embolism (PE) patient in the FLAME (FlowTriever for acute massive pulmonary embolism) study....
Vascular Specialist–April 2021
In this issue:
Three vascular surgeons journey through more than 60 peer-reviewed papers that make the connection between electronic health records (EHRs) and physician...
Surmodics announces first patient uses of two Sublime radial access platform...
Surmodics recently announced the successful first uses in patients for two devices within its Sublime radial access platform: the Sublime radial access guide sheath and...
APDVS honors Jack L. Cronenwett with inaugural Lifetime Achievement in Education...
The Association of Program Directors in Vascular Surgery (APDVS) bestowed its first-ever Lifetime Achievement in Education Award on the association's one-time president Jack L....
‘A reliable tool’: Positive findings for 2D perfusion angiography in CLTI...
Researchers suggest that in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI), two-dimensional (2D) perfusion angiography is a “reliable tool” when used according to standardized methods. Jetty...
‘Highly implementable’ price sheet strategy sparks cost reduction in vascular procedures
A simple cost reduction strategy implemented among providers in an academic vascular surgery practice yielded data demonstrating sometimes significant cost savings—in the case of...
Study identifies ‘critical need’ for guidelines on appropriate use of atherectomy
No data currently exist to support the use of atherectomy over other procedures for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and the healthcare...
Tracci elected Southern Vascular recorder
The Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) has announced the election of Margaret (Megan) Tracci, MD, as its next recorder.
Tracci is currently associate professor...
First patient treated in the BeGraft FEVAR study aimed at providing...
The first patient has been included in the BeGraft fenestrated endovascular aneurysm repair (FEVAR) study investigating the Bentley BeGraft peripheral balloon expandable covered stent...
Vetex Medical announces positive one-year outcomes for ReVene thrombectomy catheter
Vetex Medical has announced positive one-year outcomes from a European clinical study of the ReVene thrombectomy catheter. In patients with iliofemoral vein thrombus, the...
Higher frailty scores linked to increased postoperative complications and mortality in...
Higher frailty scores were associated with higher rates of postoperative complications and mortality among a national cohort of veteran patients who underwent endovascular aneurysm...
Cervical artery lesions are ‘frequent and mostly asymptomatic’ in vascular Ehlers-Danlos...
Cervical artery lesions are frequent and mostly asymptomatic in patients with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, investigators seeking to systematically assess arterial complications in the region...
Venous2021 kicks off Wednesday, March 17
The American Venous Forum (AVF) will hold its 33rd annual meeting, Venous2021, in a virtual format from March 17–20.
The conference features scientific sessions covering...
Radiation exposure: ControlRad Select imaging system gains FDA market clearance
ControlRad has announced Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance to market ControlRad Select, a technology that utilizes proprietary semi-transparent filters, a user-interface tablet,...
SVS Clinical Research Seed Grant deadline pushed to March 8
The deadline for the SVS Foundation Clinical Research Seed Grant has been extended to Monday, March 8.
The award, which provides researchers with $25,000 to...
Vascular Specialist–March 2021
In this issue:
Outpatient centers like OBLs have lately come under heavy scrutiny in light of new evidence highlighting outlier utilization rates. Last month,...
Virtual VSB Certifying Exam ‘a huge success’
The virtually administered Vascular Surgery Certifying Exam (CE) has been declared "a huge success" by members of the Vascular Surgery Board (VSB). The VSB...
EVAR improves one-year survival in octogenarians with AAAs, study finds
Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in those 80-plus decreases one-year mortality rates compared to non-operative management, researchers at the University...
Corriere: Meetings about meetings and how not to have a bad...
The past year in which the concept of “the meeting” shifted almost entirely into the digital realm challenged everything from the constitution of the...
‘Leading when everyone is watching—and when no one knows what to...
The title of the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) Jesse E. Thompson, MD, Distinguished Guest Lecture was heralded as “Leading when everyone is...
‘Grit matters in vascular surgery’
"This is what happens to you when you show grit: You end up being elected president of the American College of Surgeons."
Those were among...
Medtronic recalls unused Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system
Medtronic has voluntarily issued a global recall of its Valiant Navion thoracic stent graft system and informed physicians to immediately cease use of the...
UPDATED: First post-virus vascular meeting with in-person element declared success
The first major conference in the vascular surgery universe to incorporate an in-person element as part of a hybrid format has been declared a...
SVS solicits comments on clinical practice guidelines covering carotid disease
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is seeking comments by Feb. 24 on proposed clinical practice guidelines for the management of extracranial cerebrovascular disease—which...
Surgeons discuss early efforts rolling out SVS Branding Toolkit
Two-and-a-half years back, when Kathryn E. Bowser, MD, joined her current institution as a vascular surgeon, a confluence of unfolding events led her to...
SVS seeks volunteers to test website navigability
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is on the lookout for volunteers to help fine-tune a planned overhaul of vascular.org, the SVS website.
Testers are...
Veterans study: No evidence of increased risk of death with use...
A study of more than 10,000 U.S. veterans with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) undergoing endovascular interventions in the femoropopliteal segment found that rates of...
Pioneering Duke vascular surgeon Richard McCann dies
Richard McCann, MD, a vascular surgeon who reinvented his skills after the endovascular revolution in the 1990s and implanted the first endograft for an...
VESAP5 pandemic discount set to end
The pandemic-induced discount applied to the fifth edition of the Vascular Educational Self-Assessment Program (VESAP5) will end March 31.
VESAP5 was introduced in July 2020...
SVS opens nominations for 2021–2022 vice president
Nominations for the solitary Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) 2021 officer position is now open.
The nominations received will inform who will fill the SVS...
USPSTF reaffirms 2014 recommendation against screening for asymptomatic carotid stenosis
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended against screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis in the general adult population—a reaffirmation of...
Treo IDE primary endpoint results announced
In the wake of approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Treo abdominal aortic stent-graft system for the treatment of patients...
Vascular Specialist–February 2021
In this issue:
A Vascular Specialist cover special on atherectomy and utilization rates: "Are high reimbursement amounts incentivizing inappropriate medical provider care?" (p. 1...
COVID-19 pandemic led to ‘severe’ financial loss for academic vascular surgery...
The initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in three-month sustained decreases in operative and outpatient clinical volume as well as a “severe” financial...
Lymphedema: NYC vascular surgeon explains experience tackling severe cases with a...
Kuldeep Singh, MD, calls them a labor of love. They are tough—the patients having endured repeated hospitalizations, infections, embarrassment: The sorts of severely affected...
SVS online education hub goes live
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has launched its Education Portal, linking to eagerly anticipated new learning management system (LMS) SVS OnDemand.
Education Committee chair...
Five-year ILLUMENATE results confirm safety profile of Philips Stellarex DCB
Royal Philips has announced the final, five-year results of two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that show no difference in all-cause mortality between patients treated...
Upper-extremity vascular injuries associated with ‘increased prevalence’ of nerve deficits
Vascular injuries of the upper extremity are associated with a lower rate of limb loss but have an increased prevalence of nerve deficits after...
Vascular firefighters: New data highlight ‘essential hospital resource’
New data that analyze the preoperative and intraoperative assistance vascular surgeons provide to other surgical subspecialties underscores “the essential hospital resource” that vascular surgery...
Fempop atherectomy: Are high reimbursement amounts incentivizing inappropriate medical provider care?
Reimbursement-per-procedure for femoropopliteal atherectomy and stenting has increased at about the same rate for national providers as a whole and vascular surgeons specifically—at the...
SVS seeks volunteers for claudication Appropriate Use Criteria rating panel
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is developing Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for claudication using the RAND Appropriateness Method.
The AUC process consists of a...
Not Appropriate! Florida healthcare fraud case highlights inappropriateness in care
The latest research around practice patterns and appropriateness in care came shortly after a criminal case in Florida at the tail end of last...
‘Inordinate amount’ of vascular surgery’s Medicare payments go to narrow group,...
Just 1% of vascular surgeons receive “an inordinate amount” of the total Medicare payments that flow toward the specialty, with disproportionate use of outpatient...
Fluoroquinolones linked to increased incidence of aortic aneurysms in US adults
Fluoroquinolones—one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotic classes in the United States—were associated with increased incidence of aortic aneurysm formation in U.S. adults, a...
‘Ample published data unable to replicate association between paclitaxel-coated devices and...
Ample published data from from large, observational datasets, randomized-controlled trial (RCT) subgroup analyses and long-term follow-up from pivotal paclitaxel-coated device RCTs have not been...
FDA representatives respond to SWEDEPAD interim analysis, highlight need for continued...
Representatives from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) referenced "important and reassuring" results from the recent interim analysis of the SWEDEPAD clinical trial in which...
Upcoming symposium for fellows: ‘Building a successful vascular practice’
A symposium designed to educate graduating vascular fellows on succeeding in a community or private practice as well as an academic setting is set...
Resident Research Award deadline moved to Feb. 17
The deadline for the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Resident Research Award has been extended to Feb. 17—a knock-on effect of the date shift...
Inaugural leadership program overcomes pandemic difficulties
The inaugural cohort of the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Leadership Development Program had to show some resilience early. Not long after the initiative’s...
Vascular Specialist–January 2021
*The January 2021 issue of Vascular Specialist went to press prior to the news that the dates for VAM had been moved to August,...
Vascular surgery COVID-19 registry participants probe state of practice amid winter...
The question of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on vascular practice continues to occupy members of the specialty. Contributors to a global vascular surgery registry...
VAM dates shifted to mid-August
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has shifted the 2021 iteration of its flagship conference, the Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM), to August in a...
WIfI score found to be accurate across racial groups
The wound, ischemia and foot infection (WIfI) score is as accurate a predictor of risk for limb loss in Black people as it is...
Revascularization ‘improves’ walking performance in claudicating PAD patients
Revascularization of the lower extremity improves hemodynamics, walking performance, quality of life and calf-muscle pathology in claudicating patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), researchers...
CMS creates new codes for IVL performed below the knee
Shockwave Medical has announced that as part of the calendar year 2021 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) final rule, the Centers for...
SVS launches inaugural member census
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has launched an Annual Physician Member Census aimed at capturing current issues of importance and the changing demographics...
RelayPlus thoracic stent graft post-approval study reports low operative mortality
Terumo Aortic has announced the midterm results from the RelayPlus thoracic stent graft system post-approval study, revealing low operative mortality and morbidity— supporting its...
COVID-related hypercoagulability linked to elevated malfunction rate in temporary hemodialysis catheters
Hypercoagulability in COVID-19 patients leads to an increase in the malfunction rate of temporary hemodialysis catheters—but heparin locking of the catheters is linked to...
CMS confirms Physician Fee Schedule cuts; SVS members asked to contact...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) has delivered a blow to vascular surgery in the form of a 7% cut in total...
Dalman to trainees: ‘Vascular surgery is a tremendously rewarding career’
For aspiring vascular trainees, interview season is a time of great stress as well as opportunity. Graduating medical students and residents are preparing the...
Vascular Specialist–December 2020
In this issue:
OBL: Community surgeons talk through surviving private practice in office-based labs (p. 1 and 4)
"Present imperfect": Vascular Specialist medical editor Malachi...
OBL: Community surgeons discuss surviving private practice in office-based labs
Outpatient settings like office-based laboratories (OBLs) have attracted increased scrutiny in recent times amid efforts to shine greater light on appropriateness in care. During...
Study: The ‘successful’ operation of TCAR in a community practice setting
A research team in Dallas demonstrated the successful operation of transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) in a community practice setting, reporting results in line with...
President Dalman reflects on year of adversity—and positive change
The last nine months took away much. The Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) was canceled. The Vascular Research Initiatives Conference (VRIC) suffered a similar fate—its...
F-BEVAR performed on women shows ‘lower’ level of technical success
Fenestrated-branched endovascular aneurysm repair (F-BEVAR) for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs) carried out on women “demonstrate metrics of increased complexity and have a lower level...
Study findings support SVS practice guidelines for surveillance of small AAAs
The low rate of events that occur in small abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) supports continued ultrasound surveillance every three years for aneurysms that measure...
SVS pushes out trio of mobile apps to aid CLTI treatment
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) has launched three new mobile apps to help guide surgeons in the treatment and management of chronic limb-threatening...
NESVS outgoing president makes diversity pitch
During the virtual annual meeting of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery (NESVS), outgoing president Marc L. Schermerhorn, MD, called for the NESVS...
Frailty still strongly linked to mortality after EVAR for AAA
An analysis of the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI) endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) registry for elective abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) revealed that frailty continues to...
Foot vein arterialization study shows 77.8% limb salvage rate
Foot vein arterialization (FVA) is a safe procedure with good early graft patency and a limb salvage rate of 77.8%, Qi Yan, MD, and...
Active stent-graft fixation below the renal arteries may have the least...
Stent grafts with active fixation below the renal arteries as well as oversizing by less than 10% seem to have the least effect on...