Randall DeMartino, MD, is Division Chair of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and a co-moderator of a session dedicated to onco-vascular surgery, taking place today from 3:30–5 p.m. in National Harbor 12/13. A series of presentations will feature case reviews as well as discussion of how to achieve the best outcomes in vascular reconstruction for oncology patients. DeMartino previewed the session for VS@VAM ahead of time.
“The goal of the session is to describe the landscape of cases that aren’t as typical in vascular training,” DeMartino begins, outlining how in recent years, vascular surgeons have been taking on increasing numbers of cases from oncology colleagues for tumors involving vascular structures and performing reconstruction post-resection. “We want to be able to help” in affording patients the better chance at survival that resection can provide, he emphasizes, while noting how this is a “new” field for many vascular surgeons. The growing case numbers he and other vascular surgeons have been seeing is what prompted his interest in holding the session at this year’s VAM, DeMartino adds.
There is a significant need for multidisciplinary collaboration in order to deal with these complex cancer cases, he continues, citing urology and orthopedics as among the departments he works with. “We find ourselves [working] all over the body,” he summarizes, pointing out that vascular surgeons “are the experts in helping the patients maintain limb or organ function through the vasculature.”
The session will cover multidisciplinary collaboration and the importance of good communication among the specialties involved in a particular case; which imaging modalities to use; how to approach patients who have had previous surgeries or whose tumor has been irradiated; how to set up and prepare mentally for emergency cases; and how best to follow up with different patients.
