Expertise Essential for Coronary Intervention Without Surgical Backup - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today

TEMPLE, Tex., Feb. 5 -- Only high-volume cardiac interventionalists with meticulous track records should consider performing percutaneous coronary procedures without onsite surgical backup, according to a consensus statement.

Without endorsing the use of such procedures without onsite surgical backup, the Society for Coronary Angiography and Interventions said that only cardiologists who perform a minimum of 100 interventions annually -- including at least 18 of them primary -- should be eligible to intervene without a surgical safety net.

Moreover, no cardiologists should begin working at such a facility until "they have a lifetime experience of more than 500 percutaneous coronary interventions as primary operator after completing fellowship."

Gregory J. Dehmer, M.D., of the Texas A & M School of Medicine, and SCAI president, said that by spelling out those requirements the society "has defined 'expert' interventionalist." Only experts, he said, should be working without a safety net.

The consensus statement was published in the February issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and a shorter version was published on the journal's website.
Although the SCAI statement sets forth minimum volume requirements, Dr. Dehmer said the statement gives equal emphasis to quality, noting that it recommends that free-standing percutaneous coronary intervention centers and interventionalists at those centers should also meet quality benchmarks. [MORE]