Professor Giovanni Simonetti, Head of Interventional Radiology, Tor Vergata University Hospital, chaired this course with Professor Giovanni Gandini, Head of Interventional Radiology, Molinette Hospital, Turin, and Professor Gian Paolo Cornalba, Head of Interventional Radiology, San Paolo Hospital, Milan.
The Course was divided in two parts: a theoretical session on the procedures that have been carried out in the radiological-surgical rooms and a practical session in which endovascular interventional procedures were performed.
At the end of the course, 30 procedures had been undertaken, a very good number for an educational course. On the first day cases of AAA were shown, debating current indications for endovascular treatments, how and when to intervene, and subsequently cases of TAA were treated. The following day focused on endovascular approaches to carotid and renal lesions and the final day was dedicated to peripheral vascular stenoses and distal vessels revascularization.Professor Simonetti told Vascular News the reasons for the ICEP meeting, “The collaboration with Professor Gandini and Professor Cornalba was born in 1987 at the first Campus of Interventional Radiology. It was an original and innovative way to involve attentions on a professional-educational initiative. The recent and rapid development and improvement of vascular and extra-vascular interventional procedures has prompted us to keep separate the two branches and to focus only on new endovascular procedures. We felt the importance and the necessity of involving different specialties with endovascular knowledge having as a final objective to give to the patient the best treatment.”
Professor Gandini agreed that the aim was to get “a general consensus on how to approach endovascular treatment”.
Commenting on the state of training, Professor Cornalba said ICEP offers the endovascular training that has been available to Italian vascular surgeons to an international audience.
This year, the number of lectures was deliberately reduced to give more prominence to practical issues. Professor Barry Katzen’s (Miami, USA) presentation entitled “Endovas-cular repairs of AAA: how and when” attracted a lot of attention. He focused on the latest results of endografting: “Various types of endografts are being evaluated in clinical trials, including those that utilize unsupported grafts with stent-like attachment mechanisms and those having a metallic endoskeleton or exoskeleton. Relatively complex devices can be delivered through small arteriotomies and in some cases percutaneous approaches. Unsupported grafts, although more prone to kinking and incomplete expansion, appear to work well. Some devices employ modularity, which involves separate placement of contralateral limbs and, in some cases, extension devices. For performing endovascular grafting, pretreatment planning is critical and requires sophisticated imaging, including spiral computed tomography (CT) with 3-dimensional reconstruction and angiographic evaluation using catheters with calibrated markers.” Katzen continued: “Potential advantages of endovascular grafts include a decreased hospital stay, a less invasive procedure, and lower morbidity and mortality. Several issues remain unresolved and should be addressed by the newer generation of these devices.”
An enlarged ICEP will be held in Rome on October 3-5 2005
