New data and hot topic debates form the centrepiece of today’s (Wednesday’s) vascular access and renal interventions sessions at CX 2025, running throughout the full day in Theatre 3. Presentations will address critical challenges in current practice, including determining the right access, at the right time, for the right reasons, alongside a deep dive into the role of drug-coated balloons (DCBs) and improving outcomes with technologies.
Among the new evidence being heard for the first time at CX 2025 will be data from the STAR registry, detailing real-world outcomes with endovascular arteriovenous fistula (endoAVF) creation among 1,000 patients, and long-anticipated data from the ACCESS 2 randomised trial, evaluating outcomes following intraoperative periadventitial delivery of sirolimus—two of six podium first presentations filling the programme.
“This year the theme is challenges, and what other area is more challenging than renal disease and vascular access?” CX executive board member Nicholas Inston (Birmingham, United Kingdom) tells CX Daily News. “Renal patients are such a challenging group that most vascular surgeons and interventionalists will at some stage interact with,” he continues, going on to note that CX aims to involve everyone who sees renal patients, not just those with large practices in this area.
On what delegates can expect from this year’s meeting, Inston details: “We’ve got podium firsts, but also we’ve got the important area of case discussions, which I think is one of the highlights of the programme, where people can get together and actually discuss what issues they have with their patients.”
Inston explains that part of the programme will focus on the “big topic” of the timing of fistula creation. “That’s a huge issue,” he says, “because we create a lot of fistulas that never get used and we’re probably actually doing patients a disservice by creating fistulas too early, but we also have a lot of fistulas that don’t mature and [those] people start on central venous catheters, which we know are detrimental in so many ways—quality of life and quantity of life.”
Executive board member Kate Steiner (Stevenage, United Kingdom) adds that a Great Debate on the motion ‘DCBs should not be the standard of care for vascular access stenosis’ is set to be another programme highlight at CX 2025.
“We see some variation in practice in the UK and also across the globe,” Steiner notes, adding that she anticipates this will be a “controversial” and “lively” debate that should “answer some important questions for everyone around DCB use.”
“I think it’s really good to have these controversial debates that are on peoples’ minds and to ask these questions because it makes it so much more relevant,” Steiner comments, considering the link between CX and real-world practice. “I think we’re quite brave at Charing Cross now, addressing some of the real problems that we see on a day-to-day basis.”
Finally, Inston highlights the workshops that will be taking place on day two (Thursday), describing these as an unmatched opportunity to engage with experts. He notes there will be several workshops this year, focused on topics ranging from endovascular and surgical AVF creation to thrombectomy and ultrasound.
