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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 Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the Western Vascular Society (WVS) annual meeting (Oct. 16–19) in Jackson…
Wei Zhou: Prepared for change—and a more diverse, vocal generation of surgeons
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, MD, a regular attendee over the last decade—particularly during a session dedicated to issues related to…
Rise in cardiovascular disease, vascular surgeon burnout presents a public health crisis, Western Vascular Society hears
Cases of cardiovascular disease are rising across the U.S., with large disparities seen in ethnic groups and poorer geographical areas. In combination with increased burnout in the vascular workforce, this has led to a public health crisis that requires immediate…
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 conferences. The volume of elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repairs that medical centers perform directly…
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 panel discussion aimed at providing trainees and medical students with career guidance during the Western Vascular…
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 Arizona chief of vascular surgery Wei Zhou, MD, named the new president-elect—during the organization’s 2021 annual…
WVS 2021: Community surgeons report improved rAAA survival after adoption of EVAR-first approach
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 (rAAA) repair. Scott S. Berman, MD, a vascular surgeon at Pima Heart & Vascular in Tucson,…
‘Significant’ value of adding podiatrists to limb salvage alliance
A multidisciplinary limb salvage alliance found that operating room (OR) and clinic volumes as well as work relative value units (wRVUs) all increased significantly over a three-year period after the recruitment of podiatrists into the program. Studying data from 2015–2019,…
Family history risk of AAA ‘increases incrementally’ based on degree of relation
There is an incremental increase in the risk of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) among those with a family history of the disorder based on degree of relation—with a significantly higher risk found in patients with a first-degree relative diagnosed…
Preoperative risk score tool for rAAA 30-day mortality is accurate, new study finds
An entirely preoperative risk-scoring tool for the prediction of 30-day mortality after a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) was found to be accurate after a retrospective review of a prospectively collected database at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The calculator…