Contrary to popular belief ,great things happen only rarely in medicine . It takes only few months of training or workshops , for a wrong or inappropriate concept to percolate our brains ! But , it would require, decades of time , energy and efforts , for correcting that wrongly assimilated concept in medicine !
Interventional cardiologists are among the rare breed of physicians, who always believe in evidence ! But , the quality of the evidence is rarely questioned ! 30 years of PCI & 20 years of stenting has failed our common senses ! Fortunately , today, we have 135 pages of new evidence ( Not really new , old evidence interpreted with sound logic !)
Hats off to ACC and associates for bringing out this much belated appropriateness guidelines for the interventional cardiologists.
ACCF/SCAI/STS/AATS/AHA/ASNC 2009 Appropriateness Criteria for Coronary Revascularization
A Report of the American College of Cardiology Foundation Appropriateness
Criteria Task Force, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions,
Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American Association for Thoracic Surgery,
American Heart Association, and the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
Endorsed by the American Society of Echocardiography, the Heart Failure Society of America, and the
Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography
Click here to get guidelines
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.191768v1.pdf
If you don’t have time to read the entire document (135 pages )
Just remember only one point
Common sense, more often prevails over evidence , in medicine . Apply it , frequently in your patients .They will reep the benefits !
Dr.S.Venkatesan MD 