Annals of vascular surgery
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The aim of this study was to report the experience of one of the major "hubs" for vascular surgery in Lombardy, Italy, during the first 7 weeks after total lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ Since its appearance, SARS-CoV-2 has been testing all national healthcare systems which founds themselves facing an unprecedented emergency. Late referral in the pandemic period could seriously worsen limb prognosis; this aspect should be known and addressed by health care providers. Vascular surgical outcomes in pre-COVID and COVID era were comparable in our experience.
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Observational Study
Vascular Quality of Care Assessment: Clinicians' Adherence to Lipid-Lowering Therapy for Patients with Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.
Lipid-lowering medication can considerably lessen the risk for cardiovascular events in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Despite well-publicized guidelines and the accessibility of effective therapies, many patients do not attain their lipid goals and remain at high cardiovascular risk. Guidelines recommend statins as first-line therapy to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in ASCVD. We aimed to analyze admission lipid levels in a broad contemporary population of patients with ASCVD attending a vascular clinic or admitted to an inpatient vascular unit. ⋯ In this observational study, we established suboptimal adherence to guideline recommendations for statin therapy and hesitancy to use nonstatin LDL-lowering agents in high-risk patients with ASCVD. These treatment gaps have an enormous effect on achieving improved cardiovascular clinical outcomes and must be tackled.
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It is not uncommon for medical students seeking surgical residencies to apply to and rank two or more surgical specialties. Level of interest in a specialty is consistently cited as one of the most important factors for program directors when evaluating applicants for 0 + 5 integrated vascular surgery (IVS) programs. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in poly-specialty application submission to IVS and poly-specialty ranking of IVS to determine the percentage of applicants to IVS residencies with vascular surgery as their true preference. ⋯ IVS residency applicants were most likely to apply for poly-specialty via the ERAS to general surgery and IVS. Compared to the other surgical specialties, those who submitted rank lists to the NRMP listing integrated cardiothoracic and IVS had the highest likelihood of ranking another specialty higher. Care must be taken when evaluating applications to IVS residencies to determine the applicant's level of interest in vascular surgery as a career.
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Observational Study
Is There an Impact of COVID-19 on Admission of Patients to the Emergency Department for Vascular Surgery?
On March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak a pandemic. During this period, surgical activity and admission to the Emergency Department (ED) decreased globally. The aim of this article is to understand how the admission of a patient to the ED for vascular surgery changed in our center in Portugal and if this situation prevented urgent surgical procedures. ⋯ Fewer patients were admitted at the ED during the ES, and those admitted were significantly more urgent. We did not find a decrease in the number of urgent surgeries when compared with the preceding 10 years. Therefore, we cannot assume that coronavirus pandemic precluded urgent surgical procedures.
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Multicenter Study
Pilot Study Using Telemedicine Video Consultation for Vascular Patients' Care During the COVID-19 Period.
The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness and patients satisfaction of using telemedicine virtual communications to provide remote health care to vascular patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) period in China. ⋯ Telemedicine virtual communications was effective to provide remote health care with a high patient satisfaction during the COVID-19 period. Telemedicine offers support to vulnerable vascular patients without the need for travel and face-to-face hospital consultation, and so avoided transmission and infection.