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Fall Preview Lineup for Training in Transradial (Wrist) Angioplasty
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Full house for transradial seminar at TCT 2011 |
September 14, 2012 -- The adoption of transradial intervention (TRI), placing a stent in the heart artery from the wrist, has been growing steadily in the United States. This approach has many advantages: for the patient, cardiologist and hospital system, including rapid ambulation (faster), significantly lower bleeding complications (safer) and less manpower needed to achieve hemostasis (cost-effective). While transradial is the default approach in many countries around the world (TRI was first performed 20 years ago), the U.S. has been lagging behind -- over 90% of procedures are still done via the femoral artery in the leg/groin. However, due to the increasing number of training courses that have become available, more and more U.S. interventional cardiologists are being introduced to the procedure and are gaining the necessary knowledge and skills to begin using it.
Over the next few months, a variety of courses, seminars and symposia are being offered in the U.S. -- a complete listing can be found at Angioplasty.Org's Transradial Training Courses. Here's a quick overview:
• The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) has been organizing one-day TRIP courses across the U.S. for a couple of years now. The latest TRIP, or TransRadial Interventional Program, was held in Chicago on September 8 and was completely filled, with an overflow waiting list as well. So, if this type of course is of interest, register ASAP for the next TRIP being held on December 15, 2012 in Houston, Texas. The course co-chairs are Sunil V. Rao, MD, FACC, FSCAI, and Samir B. Pancholy, MD, FSCAI, and invited faculty include Colin M. Barker, MD, FSCAI, Ian C. Gilchrist, MD, FSCAI, and Jennifer A. Tremmel, MD, FSCAI.
• This weekend the 1st Advanced International Masterclass in Radial -- AIM-RADIAL is being held in Quebec, Canada. This intensive seminar is organized by renown transradialist Dr. Olivier Bertrand of the Quebec Heart-Lung Institute, who states, "Led by a faculty of the most highly trained and well-respected experts in this field, the program will offer a dynamic mix of lectures, live cases, roundtable discussions and poster exhibitions. Sessions are intended for interventional and general cardiologists, physicians, residents, fellows-in-training and other healthcare professionals (nurses, technologists, etc) at all experience levels."
• Reflecting the growing experience and knowledge base of the U.S. interventional community with regard to TRI, Duke Medicine, in partnership with SCAI, will present its 2nd Annual Duke Masters Course in Transradial Intervention on October 11-12, 2012 in Durham, North Carolina, fulfilling the need for a CME course for advanced practitioners. Headed by Sunil V. Rao, MD, FACC, FSCAI, and Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, FACC, FCCP, FSCAI, the Duke Transradial Masters Course will provide cardiologists, cardiology fellows, nurses, and cath lab technologists the opportunity to learn about advanced use of the transradial approach to diagnostic catheterization and coronary and interventional procedures. The invited faculty of leading international experts will incorporate case-based discussion and live presentations to provide decades of experience on the benefits of transradial PCI, especially focusing on the most difficult cases and unexpected complications the team may encounter. The invited faculty are a literal "Who's Who" of transradial intervention.The course agenda is available online.
• The largest U.S. interventional meeting is the TCT 2012 -- Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics, being held this year on October 22-26, 2012 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The transradial approach has been the subject of several major sessions at the annual week-long TCT and this year is no exception. Highlights include an entire afternoon session on Tuesday, October 23, titled "Transradial Angiography and Intervention: From Basic to Advanced" and a lunchtime session on Thursday, October 25. There also will be live cases throughout the conference that utilize the radial approach. You can browse the TCT agenda online -- just enter the word "transradial" in the search box.
• November starts off with The Transradial Approach: A Case-based and Hands-on Training Course at the Swedish Medical Center and Seattle Science Foundation in Seattle. The course will be held on November 2-3, 2012 and will provide attendees with in-depth education and training on the fundamentals of the transradial access technique. Information will be imparted through hands-on anatomical review of the upper extremity vasculature using cadaveric specimens; hands-on simulator training; direct observation of cases in the cath lab; didactic lectures on epidemiology, technique and equipment; live cases broadcast from the cath lab; and case presentations. You can get more information or register for this course online.
There are numerous TRI courses offered outside of the U.S. as well, such as the annual TRICO course, organized by Dr. Tejas Patel in Ahmedabad, India -- a course where many of the pioneering U.S.cardiologists first learned the radial approach. These courses are all listed, with links, on Angioplasty.Org's Transradial Training Courses page.
About The Radial Access Center on Angioplasty.Org
To assist in educating the professional and patient population in the U.S. about
the this technique, Angioplasty.Org created the "Radial
Access Center for Transradial Approach" in 2007, a special
section devoted to information and news about the transradial technique, for
both patients and physicians. The Radial Center features interviews with leading
practitioners of the radial technique, such as Drs. Jeffrey Popma, Sunil Rao,
Mauricio Cohen, John Coppola, Shigeru Saito and Jennifer Tremmel. The section
also maintains a
listing of upcoming training courses in the transradial approach.
For patients there is also a "Hospital
Locator" that lists U.S. centers practicing
radial angiography. As Dr. Howard Cohen of Lenox Hill Hospital
in New York says of the wrist technique, "Patients really
prefer it. 95% of people who've had it both ways would say
'I'm coming back to you, Dr. Cohen because I like this transradial
a lot better than the other way!'
Reported by Burt Cohen, September 14, 2012
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