Vascular Surgery

The Vascular Surgical section at the University of Kansas Medical Center is committed to the tradition of excellence established during the past decade. Major goals for the future include the development of a basic science vascular research laboratory and the expansion of clinical expertise in the developing areas of vascular surgery.

A Message from the Chairman

The vascular surgical residency training program at the University of Kansas has been approved for the required extension to a two year program. The residency will continue to consider only those applicants who have successfully completed either a general or cardiothoracic surgery residency.

The proposed changes in the program are designed to extend the didactic experience of the vascular resident while exposing the resident to all current and developing vascular, diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. The first two year resident will enter the program on July 1st of 2007.

The residency is structured to provide an extensive experience in the vascular laboratory, in diagnostic and therapeutic catheter based procedures and open vascular operations. In addition, the vascular resident will develop expertise in the application and interpretation of CT and MR scans.

The weekly didactic conferences alternate between a Journal Club, moderated by the vascular resident, and lectures given by the vascular resident or faculty members from basic science disciplines (physiology, pathology) and the vascular surgery educational team (vascular and cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiology, interventional radiology). In addition, there is a monthly case conference alternating between open and interventional catheter based cases.

The resident will rotate between three institutions, the University of Kansas Medical Center, the Dwight D. Eisenhower V.A. Medical Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Hutchinson Hospital and Clinic in Hutchison, Kansas. The resident is supported not only by the program director and coordinator but by two vascular surgeons, three cardiothoracic surgeons, one general surgeon, three interventional radiologists and four cardiologists. This experience will easily allow the resident to meet the operative and interventional requirements of the ACGME and the RRC. We added another vascular surgeon, Dr. Karthik Vamanan, to our faculty this year. He will be contributing significantly to the endovascular experience of the vascular resident.

The vascular residency at the University of Kansas has produced well trained vascular surgeons for the past twenty plus years. The opening of the University of Kansas Medical Center's Cardiovascular Center in October 2006 is expected to continue to add to the success of the training program.

History

In 1951, several months prior to the report by Dubost et al, Creighton Hardin and Paul Schaffer at the University of Kansas Medical Center performed the first abdominal aortic replacement with an aortic homograft. Thus Vascular Surgery, then in its infancy, was introduced to the students, residents, and staff at the University of Kansas Medical Center. This legacy resulted in the formation of the Vascular Surgery Service in July of 1979. Below you will see photographs of the aneurysm.