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Asymptomatic PAD treatment – New clinical guidelines add to LE debate
The Society for Vascular Surgery has just released its long-awaited, “SVS practice guidelines for atherosclerotic occlusive disease of the lower extremities: Management of asymptomatic disease and claudication,” and they are available online. View the guidelines at this link. The guidelines…
Reducing radiation exposure
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– “It’s surprising to me today, when I go proctor or watch a case, how people don’t understand the impact of radiation,” Dr. Mark A. Farber, professor of surgery and radiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,…
Shared decision making?
Recently I read a blog by Dr. Ira Nash at the blog site, KevinMD, where Dr. Nash suggests that it behooves physicians to fully inform patients with carotid stenosis about the pros and cons of proposed treatment. This is in…
Residents reluctant to recommend DNR to patients
BOSTON – Medical residents in the United States appear to understand that cardiopulmonary resuscitation or intubation is highly unlikely to benefit patients with advanced cancers at the end of life, but the majority of residents surveyed said that they do…
TLR – Target lesion recurrence
In November I attended the VEITHsymposium in New York. Almost 600 experts from around the world gave lectures on every aspect of vascular surgery. Given 5 minutes per talk, the presenters had to carefully select data they believed would bolster…
Some things vascular surgeons should know that they don’t learn in training
All vascular surgeons want to be good doctors and to take the best possible care of their patients. They, therefore, train diligently and strive to keep up with new developments by reading vascular journals and attending cutting edge vascular meetings.…
In the January JVS – Frailty versus morbidity in elective AAA repair
Frailty accounted for an increased morbidity in elective AAA repair patients who participated in a study detailed in the February 2015 edition of the Journal for Vascular Surgery. Lead author Dr. Shipra Arya notes that more than 60 percent of…
PRESERVE study to select sites soon
Over the next few months, sites will be selected for the first large-scale, multi-specialty, prospective clinical research trial to evaluate IVC filters in the United States. A collaboration between SVS and the Society of Interventional Radiology, the five-year trial will…
Report Language included in the 2015 Omnibus Bill on Global Surgical Packages
SVS staff worked with a group of surgical society representatives to try to rescind the elimination of the Global Surgical Packages as part of the Omnibus bill that funds the government for 2015. This elimination was included in both the…
Re-designing informed consent for the 21st century
A shared decision-making model focuses on how patients view outcomes. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand statistics. Using a simple diagram and narrative, surgeons in Wisconsin are training to use a new kind of informed consent for the 21st…