Last month, Vascular Specialist garnered readers’ attention with an array of commentary on the BEST-CLI and BASIL-2 trials; the medical editor’s interview with vascular surgery’s ‘living legend’ Frank J. Veith, MD; the news of the death of Past SVS President Kenneth Wayne Johnston; and a report of a Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) breakfast session on the role of vascular surgeons in the pulmonary embolism (PE) treatment paradigm.
1. More research needed but lithotripsy plus TCAR ‘an answer’ in certain carotid disease patients
Misty Humphries, MD, MAS, associate professor of surgery at UC Davis in Sacramento, California, gives Vascular Specialist the lowdown on recent findings that intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) may be able to expand transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) into patients with traditionally prohibitive calcific disease.
2. ‘Nobody believed us’: Vascular giant on overcoming skeptics
Malachi Sheahan III, MD, Vascular Specialist’s medical editor, speaks to living legend and limb-salvage pioneer Frank J. Veith, MD, on the contents of his hard-hitting new book, The Medical Jungle: A Pioneering Surgeon’s Battle to Revolutionize Vascular Care and Challenge the Medical Mafia, ahead of the inaugural named lecture established in his honor taking place at last month’s VAM.
3. BEST-CLI investigators implore a move beyond endo vs. open ‘battle’ in the name of scientific advance
The principal investigators behind the BEST-CLI trial struck a conciliatory tone during the inaugural Frank J. Veith Distinguished Lecture at VAM 2023 in which they laid bare the blood, sweat and tears shed on their journey to complete the landmark study.
4. SVS mourns death of Past President Kenneth Wayne Johnston
The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) mourns the death of Kenneth Wayne Johnston, an SVS member, former president and recipient in 2009 of the SVS’ highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
5. Novel drug candidate for slowing AAA growth demonstrates safety in humans
According to Stephen Cheng, MBBS, MS, chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Hong Kong, the first-in-human study findings suggesting that the local delivery of a glucose-derived compound in small- and medium-sized AAAs is safe merit further evaluations within randomized controlled trials.
6. BASIL-2 and BEST-CLI: A tale of two limb trials
Michael S. Conte, MD, is chair in Vascular Surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and he weighs in on some of the key questions surrounding the BASIL-2 and BEST-CLI trials.
7. Crawford panel focuses on challenges of vascular workforce crisis
This year’s VAM E. Stanley Crawford Critical Issues Forum looked at ways to address the pipeline of sources feeding the vascular surgery pool of talent, yielded an illuminating perspective on the looming workforce crisis currently occupying leaders in the field.
8. VQI@VAM: Social media helps promote safe technique, study finds
A social media campaign promoting educational videos proved efficient and cost-effective, and similar campaigns will be useful for quality improvement projects directed toward medical trainees.
9. The essential ‘need’ for vascular surgeons in PE treatment paradigm
Vascular surgeons who are SVS members from pulmonary embolism response teams (PERTs) or busy PE programs from six large hospitals and systems discussed advances in care and the role that vascular surgeons play in the current PE landscape at a breakfast session at VAM last month.
10. Special VAM session underscores ‘complementary’ nature of open and endovascular strategies in CLTI patients
A dedicated session at VAM 2023 saw speakers and delegates gather to debate, analyse and consider the implementation of the BEST-CLI and BASIL-2 randomized-controlled trials (RCTs). There was general agreement that the strategies are complementary, and that “picking the right thing for the right patient at the right time” should take precedence.
