Training Standards for Physicians Performing Peripheral Angioplasty and Other Percutaneous Peripheral Vascular Interventions

Abstract

PERCUTANEOUS transluminal angioplasty of peripheral, renal, and visceral arteries has been in widespread clinical use for more than a decade, and it is estimated that approximately 100,000 of these procedures are performed annually in the United States. In recent years controversy has developed among the various medical disciplines about who is qualified to perform percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (and associated peripheral interventions such as intra-arterial thrombolysis, stent placement, atherectomy, and laser angioplasty) and what training standards should be established for physicians entering this field.