Dr Conor Marron, of AVC, was invited to provide an Editorial as an overview of an Australian scientific publication in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Surgery.  This article focused on the trends of treatment of arterial disease in Australia between 2001 to 2015.

He comments, “Treatments for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) have changed significantly. The increased utilization of endovascular techniques has been driven by a change in patient demographics, patient demand, an explosion in technology….

Technological advances have contributed to the increase in endo- vascular techniques. The use of occlusion-crossing devices and retrograde vessel access techniques has improved the success rate of treating occlusions that were previously untreatable, either by surgery or endovascular means. The use of vessel preparation technologies, including atherectomy and drug-eluting balloon and stent technology, has the potential to improve the durability of results we are achieving.”

He concludes “Endovascular interventions will continue to increase to meet the challenge of more complex, comorbid patients, making previously untreatable patients treatable, reducing major limb amputation rates and improving mortality of this devastating disease process.”