Drs. Art Sedrakyan and Jialin Mao publish high impact paper in JAMA Surgery on the use of open vascular surgery to treat abdominal aortic aneurysm and carotid stenosis.

With the invent of minimally invasive procedure, there has been a decrease in the use of open vascular surgery to treat abdominal aortic aneurysm and carotid stenosis. In the recent cohort study using hospital data from 2000 to 2014 in New York State, we found that the practice of very low-volume surgeons performing 1 or fewer open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and carotid endarterectomy has declined but continued to exist. Patients undergoing surgery performed by these surgeons had worse in-hospital outcomes as well as increased healthcare resource use. Our research calls for efforts to address this practice pattern to ensure high-quality care for all patients.