The last decade has witnessed a number of changes in the delivery of vascular services nationwide. Vascular surgery attained speciality status in 2012, and is well recognised as an urgent and emergent speciality delivering time-dependent care for patients with aortic aneurysms, carotid surgery for stroke prevention and lower limb revascularisation for critical limb-threatening ischaemia. The […]
Read MoreBackground Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) UK is a newly formed patient representative group giving national representation to AAA patients and their loved ones, providing a platform for national discussion on the impact of – and potential policy changes relating to – the condition. For too long the patient voice has not been a focal point […]
Read MoreSome diseases are endemic and persistent. In this edition of the journal, the paper by vascular trainees Madurska et al points to bullying and harassment being such a disorder which is stubbornly resistant to intervention.1 Previous surveys have highlighted this problem and, although reported here in vascular surgery, it pervades much of surgery. Why is […]
Read More“The tragedies of life are largely arterial” – Sir William Osler1 Every vascular surgeon can remember stories of patients with aortic dissection having thrombolysis for a presumed myocardial infarction, or a V/Q scan and full anticoagulation for a likely pulmonary embolus. My most memorable story is of an international sports coach who developed tearing intrascapular […]
Read MoreNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline 147 recommends supervised exercise therapy (SET) for all patients with intermittent claudication, consisting of 2 hours of SET per week for a 3-month period.1 This is supported by good evidence from Cochrane reviews2,3 that SET shows improvement in mean walking performance compared with home-based exercise and […]
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