Annual Report 2010 - St. James's Hospital

Non Directorate Specialities I Department Of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery
A major upgrade of the Veins Unit took place leading to a
much safer and more comfortable patient environment.
A new rapid-access ulcer clinic was commenced to ensure
ulcers are seen and treated as early as possible. Nurse-led
dressing clinics continue and excellent healing rates are
achieved. The management of venous disease is seeing a
rapid change with endovenous laser ablation being offered
to patients with excellent results. The department has well
advanced plans to move varicose vein treatment to an
outpatient setting which will allow the freeing up hospital
beds and scare theatre resources.
The vascular laboratory remains extremely busy with
expansion of the role of peripheral duplex imaging in
selecting patients for endovascular management. The
laboratory works extremely closely with the stroke service
to provide rapid access to diagnostic facilities for patient
presenting with symptoms of stroke. It has also seen a rapid
increase in its DVT services with St. James’s being one of the
largest cancer centres.
The department has obtained funding to replace out of
date x-ray equipment and a state of the art C-arm is being
delivered in September.
The unit continues to attract clinicians from other countries
for endovascular training and the department continues to
provide vascular surgical training at the highest level. It was
a good year for research and two abstracts were accepted
for presentation at the Annual Society of Vascular Surgery
Meeting in the United States, one of the most prestigious
vascular meeting and Adrian O’Callaghan SpR got to the
fi nals of the poster presentations.
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