Centers With Vascular Surgery Training Programs Are More Likely To Utilize Vein Mapping and Autologous Vein for Infrainguinal Bypass

The BMC2 publication, “Centers With Vascular Surgery Training Programs Are More Likely To Utilize Vein Mapping and Autologous Vein for Infrainguinal Bypass,” is in the November issue of the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

First author, Dr. Hassan Chamseddine, and team reviewed BMC2 data to evaluate the relationship between medical centers using preoperative vein mapping and the use of autologous vein conduits when available for infrainguinal bypass - as recommended by the Society for Vascular Surgery – and the center having a vascular surgery training program.

Both integrated vascular surgery residencies and vascular surgery fellowships were considered as VS training programs, and the authors identified patients undergoing elective infrainguinal bypass for peripheral artery disease between 2016 and 2022, classifying them based on whether or not the medical center in which they were treated had an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-certified Vascular Surgery training program.

A total of 37 centers performing infrainguinal bypass were included, of which 24% had a vascular surgery training program and 76% did not. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, centers with a vascular surgery training program were more than twice as likely to utilize preoperative vein mapping and nearly twice as likely to use autologous vein conduits in patients undergoing infrainguinal bypass compared with centers without a vascular surgery training program.

While centers with a vascular surgery training program demonstrate higher rates of perioperative vein mapping and autologous vein mapping utilization in infrainguinal bypass, and therefore greater adherence to Society for Vascular Surgery guidelines for the management of peripheral artery disease, overall utilization remains below 50%. Better patient outcomes can be achieved if future quality improvement initiatives and strategies focus on improving adherence to the Society of Vascular Surgery’s guidelines, regardless of practice setting.

Additional authors are Loay Kabbani, MD; Timothy Nypaver, MD; Mitchell Weaver, MD; Tamer Boules, MD; Yasaman Kavousi, MD; Kevin Onofrey, MD; Andi Peshkepija, MD; and Alexander Shepard, MD.

This study was also presented during the 2025 Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Society Annual Meeting, February 6 – 8, 2025, in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Learn more at PubMed.