Basic Data Underlying Clinical Decision Making in Endovascular Therapy

Article Outline

 

From its inception in 1989, Annals of Vascular Surgery included a section titled “Basic Data Underlying Clinical Decision Making in Vascular Surgery,” edited by the late John Porter, MD, and his partner at Oregon Health Sciences University, Lloyd Taylor, MD. The objective of this section was to provide the practicing physician with relevant data concerning selected clinic topics. Drs. Porter and Taylor, in the preface to their book of the same title, opined: “We believe that the essence of the practice of vascular surgery … is decision making based on incomplete and/or imperfect data. Such decision making can be made somewhat easier if the physician has available references providing timely data on the topic in question.” I have used their book for 15 years to help make clinical decisions on a variety of topics related to traditional, open vascular surgery.

The practice of vascular surgery has changed dramatically since 1994, when Basic Data Underlying Clinical Decision Making in Vascular Surgery was published, and now includes a preponderance of endovascular procedures. Although the field is constantly evolving, our primary goal as vascular clinicians remains—To make thoughtful decisions for our patients based on sound data. Such information is often lacking in the arena of endovascular therapy. This issue of Annals includes the first in a series of manuscripts that will analyze peer-reviewed data on a wide variety of endovascular procedures, summarized in tabular form, in a new section titled “Basic Data Underlying Clinical Decision Making in Endovascular Therapy.” As so eloquently stated by Drs. Berguer and Kieffer in 1994, “We would be very pleased if it should become a tool that enhances scientific choice in clinical practice.”