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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 trauma, a new analysis comparing vascular trauma of the extremities reveals. The investigators behind the study—delivered…
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 represents. These findings by a team of researchers from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers…
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 same time as much higher rates were recorded for radiologists and general surgeons, an analysis of…
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 writing panel that develops clinical scenarios and a rating panel that rates the appropriateness of…
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 year in which the owner of an outpatient catheterization lab pled guilty to committing healthcare fraud,…
‘Inordinate amount’ of vascular surgery’s Medicare payments go to narrow group, study finds
Just 1% of vascular surgeons receive “an inordinate amount” of the total Medicare payments that flow toward the specialty, with disproportionate use of outpatient atherectomy among a small number of providers raising concerns on appropriateness and overutilization, an investigation of…
Leadership and culture: Nurturing our immune system
Defining culture is amorphous, and mostly subjective. Being hard to define, it falls behind other measures of leadership—and team success or failure—like strategy or communication skills. Michael Watkins, PhD, professor of leadership and organizational change at the International Institute for…
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 new study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Surgery found. “This association…
Journal supplement outlines updated clinical practice guidelines, reporting standards
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) is starting 2021 with updated clinical practice guidelines and reporting standards for three vascular conditions. Guidelines on chronic mesenteric ischemia have been developed to provide the best possible evidence for the diagnosis and treatment…
‘Ample published data unable to replicate association between paclitaxel-coated devices and mortality’
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 able to replicate an association between such devices and mortality, an expert analysis recently published online…