Patient radiation exposure for endovascular deep venous interventions

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to assess the cumulative radiation exposure from preoperative, periprocedural, and follow-up imaging to patients who underwent common endovascular deep venous interventions for acute and chronic central venous outflow obstructive diseases; namely, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) thrombolysis, unilateral chronic iliofemoral venous stenting, and inferior vena cava (IVC) reconstruction in a single center. METHODS: Patients who had DVT thrombolysis of upper extremity (UE) DVT and lower extremity (LE) DVT, unilateral chronic iliofemoral venous stenting, and endovascular IVC reconstruction between May 1, 2012, and July 31, 2017, in a single unit were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic data, anatomic DVT, imaging, technical details of the index procedure, follow-up, and radiation exposure measured in dose-length product, dose-area product (DAP), and fluoroscopy time (FT) from related computed tomography scans and interventions were analyzed. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to assess for significance of differences between subgroups. A P value of less than .05 was considered significant. RESULTS: In total, 20 UE DVT thrombolysis, 91 LE DVT thrombolysis, 56 unilateral chronic iliofemoral venous stenting, and 39 endovascular IVC reconstruction patients were included in the study, with the following median ages: 39 years (range, 20-67 years), 44 years (range, 15-78 years), 45 years (range, 20-80 years), and 35 years (range, 18 -73 years), respectively. The median cumulative DAP for the index DVT thrombolysis was 9.2 Gycm2 (range, 0.2-176.0 Gycm2) for LE DVT and 2.0 Gycm2 (range, 0.1-11.7 Gycm2) for UE DVT (P < .0001). The median cumulative FT for the index thrombolysis was 981 seconds (range, 20-4890 seconds) and 837 seconds (range, 19-2895 seconds) for LE DVT and UE DVT, respectively (P = .18). For unilateral chronic iliofemoral venous stenting, the median cumulative DAP and FT were 32.4 Gycm2 (range, 0.1-289.6 Gycm2) and 660 seconds (range, 246-4200 seconds), respectively. Meanwhile, the median cumulative DAP and FT for the endovascular IVC reconstruction were 60.8 Gycm2 (range, 2.5-269.1 Gycm2) and 2846 seconds (range, 836-11682 seconds), respectively. The median DAP for secondary procedures during follow-up was 6.6 Gycm2 (range, 0.8 186.5 Gycm2), 1.9 Gycm2 (range, 0.2-111.7 Gycm2), and 24.3 Gycm2 (range, 0.2-157.5 Gycm2) for LE DVT thrombolysis, unilateral chronic iliofemoral venous stenting, and endovascular IVC reconstruction, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Patient radiation exposure for endovascular deep venous interventions for central venous outflow obstruction measured in DAP and FT seemed to be less than and at most similar to anatomically comparable arterial interventions in the literature. However, these patients were usually much younger than those with arterial diseases and may need secondary interventions involving further radiation exposure in their lifetime

The "Woundosome" Concept and Its Impact on Procedural Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia

This editorial assembles endovascular specialists from diverse clinical backgrounds and nationalities with a global call to address key challenges to enhance revascularization in chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) patients.- Dedicated below-the-ankle (BTA) angiography and revascularization is underutilized in ischemic foot treatment. Existing guidelines do not address comprehensive BTA vessel analysis. CLTI trials also often lack data on in-line arterial flow to the ischemic lesion and BTA vessel evaluation, hindering outcome assessment.- Dedicated multi-planar angiographic evaluation of the distal microcirculation is key: Direct arterial flow or good-quality collaterals are crucial in influencing wound healing and need to be assessed diligently to the level of the distal ischemic wound territory, termed “woundosome.”- An important primary emphasis of future trials should be on validating technologies and strategies for assessing tissue perfusion before, during, and after revascularization undertaken to heal tissue loss in CLTI patients. This will allow determination of a potentially significant delta in tissue perfusion prior to and following intervention at the “woundosome” level. Once changes in arterial perfusion have been identified as positively correlated to wound healing, these could serve as a much-needed novel primary technical outcome measure for patients with tissue loss undergoing surgical, hybrid, or endovascular revascularization