In this issue:
OCTOBER 2023 Volume 19 Number 10
2 F rom the Editor Malachi Sheahan III, MD, on sex, lies and carotid stents
11 G rand Rounds Opportunity knocks in Washington, D.C.
6A ppropriate care SVS-ACS tandem marks release of outpatient standards for Vascular Verification Program
13 Midwestern Vascular MVSS President Jeffrey Jim, MD, delivers a love letter to vascular surgery at annual meeting
THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF THE
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EASTERN VASCULAR NEW DATA CHART UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AT THE HEAD OF NATIONAL CLINICAL TRIALS
COMPLEX AORTIC
Preventing spinal cord ischemia: Novel techniques for direct segmental artery revascularization show promise, WVS hears
By Bryan Kay THE UNDERREPRESENTATION of women vascular surgeons in national clinical trial leadership formed the central theme of data coming out of a new study that probed all clinical trials in five main areas of vascular disease between 1997 and 2003. Delivered before the 2023 Eastern Vascular Society (EVS) annual meeting in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 7–9), investigators revealed that female vascular surgeons constituted 10.3% of all investigators leading clinical trials, with solo female principal investigators (PIs) making up just 9%. Additionally, only 5% of women vascular surgeons were solo PIs on industry-sponsored trials, and women were also less likely to lead interventional compared to non-interventional treatment trials, EVS 2023 heard. The data were presented by Valentyna Kostiuk, a medical student from Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, who opened her talk with a baseline remark: “Female vascular surgeons constitute about 15% of the workforce, but remain underrepresented in vascular societies and NIH [National Institutes of Health] funding. Additionally, female patients are more likely to be enrolled in clinical trials if they are led by female investigators.”
A vascular surgery team from the University of Southern California (USC) demonstrated the feasibility of direct revascularization of segmental arteries to prevent spinal cord ischemia (SCI) using novel endovascular or extraanatomic bypass techniques in high-risk patients with complex thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAAs). By Bryan Kay
T
his followed a retrospective review of fenestrated or branched endovascular aneurysm repairs (F/BEVARs) over a five-year period, attendees of the recent Western Vascular Society (WVS) annual meeting (Sept. 9–12) were told. The early work, which involves 12 patients undergoing either an endovascular or open approach, was hailed by audience member Benjamin W. Starnes, MD, chief of vascular surgery at University of Washington Medicine in Seattle, who said, “This is a new idea. I applaud the courageousness of our colleagues at USC for pursuing this.” USC integrated vascular surgery resident Anand Ganapathy, MD, who presented the study results, told WVS 2023, held in Koloa, Hawaii, that nine patients were treated endovascularly,
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A. FREISCHLAG, MD, USED HER WOMEN'S CHAMPION: JULIE turn as honorary guest lecturer at the 2023 MidwestFREISCHLAG MARKS ern Vascular Surgical Society (MVSS) annual meeting to make a pitch for vascular surgeons to step up to OUT VALUE OF the plate as hospital and institutional leaders—beDIVERSITY AND cause that is “who you are,” she told the gathering in SURGEONS AS Minneapolis, Minnsota (Sept. 7–9). “I would challenge you as vascular surgeons to go HOSPITAL LEADERS and run things,” she said. “Surgeons are really, really By Bryan Kay
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