It is with some distress that many of my colleagues and I have worked a lifetime to reduce major amputation and we like to think we save legs. The plain fact is that too many legs are lost today that should not be.

Luciano Pedrini, Maggiore Hospital, Bologna, Italy, takes TASC II to task

The recent vote by the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) shows how interventional radiology has moved from a technical discipline to a true clinical discipline, which marks a real milestone – the official birth of a new medical specialty in Europe. CIRSE president, Jim A Reekers, said European standards for training in interventional radiology can now be implemented, which would result in the improvement of quality of care for patients

Poštovani posjetitelji,

od danas je dostupan završni program susreta kao i popis događanja za sIRcro2009.

srdačan pozdrav,

Nikola Ivan Leder, dr. med. 

sIRcro2009 - organizacijski odbor

Esteemed visitors,

as of today, the final program as well as the events schedule for sIRcro2009 are available.

sincerely,

Nikola Ivan Leder, dr. med. 

sIRcro2009 - organizing committee

In the largest multicenter randomised controlled study of surgical intervention versus non-surgical care for acute vertebral compression fractures, patients undergoing balloon kyphoplasty showed superior improvement in quality of life, back function and back pain compared to those who had non-surgical care alone one month after surgery. The benefits of balloon kyphoplasty were sustained on average throughout 12 months.

The ‘Second Annual Vascunet Database Report 2008’ includes comparisons of national outcomes for AAAs, and it is hoped the report will be used to detect national differences in the presentation and treatment of AAAs and identify changes over time. Mr Chris Gibbons, Morriston Hospital, Swansea, UK, and Chairman of the ESVS Vascunet Committee, commented: “By amalgamating the data from the registries, we are provided with outcome data that allow us to identify risk factors, identify possible differences and ultimately, improve outcomes. More importantly from the surgeon’s standpoint, it has established benchmarks against which we can compare our outcomes.”