SAN DIEGO -- Novel technology and techniques are expected to take the spotlight here at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting, from left ventricular assist devices to less invasive and hybrid techniques in ischemic heart disease.
While always the domain of the aptly-named Tech-Con portion of the meeting, new devices and methods permeate the entire program, conference planning chair Joseph F. Sabik III, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, told ڴŮ.
Aside from the current hot-button issue of percutaneous aortic valve replacement featured throughout the program, he pointed to presentations on the SYNTAX and upcoming EXCEL trials as highlights.
SYNTAX has been a touchstone in the turf war between surgeons and interventional cardiologists, adding to the consistent message that coronary artery bypass surgery yields better outcomes than stenting for complex lesions, although by a narrower margin than seen in prior head-to-head trials. Its three-year results will be released at the meeting.
That trial used the paclitaxel-eluting Taxus stent, but the EXCEL trial, which Sabik will introduce at the conference, compares the newer generation everolimus-eluting Xience stent to bypass surgery in patients with left main coronary artery disease.
Important new data on long-term circulatory support with left ventricular assist devices can be anticipated as well, Sabik told ڴŮ in an interview.
He also highlighted "big presentations" from the STS databases slated for the conference.
Last year, the STS used its databases, which include voluntary reporting of patient chart data from more than 90% of the nation's cardiac surgery programs, to issue a performance report card for a proportion of bypass surgery centers.
Now researchers using the STS databases will report on the use of preoperative beta-blockers as a quality marker and variations in outcomes in congenital heart surgery -- landmark research, according to Scott Swanson, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
A session on novel treatments for lung cancer, particularly screening-detected lesions, came in at the top of the list for Swanson, who also served on the conference planning team.
A recent development in the thoracic world featured at Tech-Con is using the interventional suite for a more integrated diagnosis and treatment of cancer and ways to extend the minimally invasive approach to cancers that haven't been approachable, he noted in an interview.
With radiologic imaging, "the surgeon can see the lesion more clearly and use small catheters or needles to get at them both for diagnosis and potentially for treatment," he told ڴŮ. "That's very exciting because we're getting less and less invasive, which is good for patients and gets us to the disease earlier in its course."
One change this year is that Tech-Con will take a practical turn, emphasizing how to get the newest technology home to the operating room with presentations on training opportunities and building business plans.
"We talk a little bit about financial issues around some of these devices, which in the current world is important and an important angle we're always looking at now," Swanson said.