DAILY NEWS SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
HIGHLIGHTS FROM FRIDAY
Issue 3 Saturday 7 October
The official newspaper of the 37th EACTS Annual Meeting 2023
THE DISRUPTION DECADE Don't miss today's keynote from communications expert Dex Hunter-Torricke
Page 9
MAKING HISTORY
Franca Melfi becomes EACTS' first woman President
Pages 3-4
IMPROVING PATIENT CARE WITH EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDELINES Trusted, evidence-based guidelines are critical decision-making tools, supporting clinicians to deliver highquality patient care.
CT SURGERY RESIDENTS SHOWDOWN The winner of the European final is crowned. Page 14
TRIALS UPDATE Examine the current progress and findings of major trials in our field, including the UK Mini Mitral Trial and the EVOLUT Low-Risk Trial today at 10:30 in Hall D.
Three recently developed guidelines will be presented in this afternoon’s highly anticipated session ‘EACTS Guidelines 2023’ with lead authors discussing the impact of these new recommendations on daily practice and the treatment options and benefits for patients in aortic disease, endocarditis and left main stem stenosis. The guidelines featured in this session include
organisations that bring specific expertise, knowledge and diversity to jointly develop evidence-based recommendations. It is through collaboration with the wider cardiothoracic community that we are able to develop the best possible evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. This session will present some of the key points from three recently published guidelines that have been produced in collaboration with other societies and organisations or endorsed by EACTS.” A FOCUS ON THE LATEST GUIDELINES
• ESC/EACTS Review of the 2018 myocardial revascularisation guideline on LMCAD
ESC/EACTS Revision of 2018 myocardial revascularisation guideline on LMCAD
• ESC Guidelines for Management of Infective Endocarditis developed in collaboration with EACTS
Following a period of close collaboration with the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), a joint ESC/EACTS Task Force, chaired by Professors Robert Byrne and Stephen Fremes, has completed a review of the evidence for the treatment of low surgical-risk patients with LMCAD. The findings have been published in EJCTS and the European Heart Journal and conclude that the class of recommendation and level of evidence for CABG should be Class I and Level of Evidence A, while for PCI it should be downgraded to Class IIa and Level of Evidence A.
• EACTS/STS Guidelines on the Management of Aortic Disease This is an excellent opportunity to put questions directly to the clinicians responsible for developing the guidelines and to engage with a multidisciplinary panel. Milan Milojevic, Chair of the EACTS Committee for Practice Guidelines, said, “We recognise the importance and value of working closely with
Background In 2019, EACTS Council withdrew support from the recommendations on the treatment of left main coronary artery disease in the 2018 joint ESCEACTS Myocardial Revascularisation Guidelines. EACTS and the ESC recognised the need to review the recommendations on left main coronary artery disease and worked together to create a bespoke joint ESC/ EACTS Task Force. The Task Force was able to review longterm analyses of observational studies, clinical trials and an individual patient data meta-analysis published by Sabatine and colleagues in 2021 which included data from four randomised clinical trials comparing PCI using drug-eluting stents (DES) to CABG with at least five years of follow-up: SYNTAX, Bypass Surgery Versus Angioplasty Using Sirolimus Eluting Stent in Patients With Left Main Coronary Artery Disease (PRECOMBAT), Nordic-BalticBritish left main revascularisation study (NOBLE) and EXCEL. Findings The Task Force’s conclusion, after reviewing all the relevant evidence, is that for low-surgical risk patients with LMCAD, both coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous
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