title: Determining who trains vascular surgery fellows in endovascular techniques.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Vascular surgery training has evolved from a single clinical year after general surgery training to a multi-year training program to encompass such entities as noninvasive vascular laboratory, office-based procedures, and endovascular techniques. Simultaneously, members of the vascular surgery community have had to undergo significant training to become facile with endovascular techniques. We surveyed vascular surgery trainees on the online Vascular Surgery In-Training Examination (VSITE) in 2008 and 2009 to assess who trained them in percutaneous techniques.
  
  
  METHODS
  Vascular surgery trainees in the Independent (2-year) and Integrated (5-year) training programs were asked to participate in a survey upon completion of the VSITE in 2008 and 2009. Examinees were asked to select whether vascular surgeons, cardiologists, or interventional radiologists trained them in carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS), thoracic endografts (TEVAR), endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR), renal artery intervention, iliac stenting, superficial femoral artery (SFA), and tibial artery percutaneous interventions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Survey response rate was 79.6% (191 of 240). Results of the survey are shown in Table I. In 2009, vascular surgeons provided more than 84% of the training to vascular surgery residents. Only six respondents had >50% of their percutaneous training with interventional radiology and two with cardiologists.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vascular surgeons involved in resident education have been able to retrain themselves in endovascular techniques such that they are now able to provide greater than 80% of the endovascular experience to vascular surgery residents.
authors.affiliation: Division of Vascular Surgery, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA. Amy.reed@uc.edu
authors.forename: Amy B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ricotta
mesh_terms: D017130:Angioplasty / Q000193:education; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000193:education; D002309:Cardiology / Q000193:education; D003479:Curriculum; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D015642:Radiology, Interventional / Q000193:education; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000193:education*