Thank you all, would it then be better for one to pursue cardiac surgery for open aortic surgery (TAAA, arch cases, TAD, root etc etc)
1) Do you forsee the swing back to Open Surgery for AAA (30-40% of AAA) with the difference in long term outcomes esp in IFU violations? Now the NICE guidelines are recommending open surgery first approach?
2) I enjoy the idea and feel of operating in the abdomen, the VS in my institute did a lot of spine exposures, would I be able to develop a busy ALIF practice?
Thank you for entertaining my crystal ball questions.
1. As of now I don't see a major swing back towards open aortic surgery for elective infrarenal aneurysm repair. These aren't benign procedures and a lot of things can go wrong when you're doing open aortic work.
2. I think developing a busy ALIF practice will depend on where you go and how busy the spine guys are at doing that. We do a lot of that here as well (at least one every Thursday) and it is a nice technique to know how to do. I interviewed at a couple of private practices and they were all about handing off that portion of their practice to me and letting me the RP exposure guy.
I don't have enough knowledge about the aortic work in the cardiac realm to comment, and
@ThoracicGuy has already added some clarity in regards to the volume. My understanding is that once again, there aren't that many dudes out there like Bavaria, Gleason and Cosselli who can make a permanent living doing central aortic work unless you work your way up in a major academic center that gets those kinds of referrals. That kind of practice will definitely not be happening in a private practice setting. You won't have the manpower to round and manage the minute to minute ICU care afterwards and the admin is gonna want you doing procedures that generate revenue.
*Complete opinion that I refuse to take any responsibility for*
If you're dead set on open aortic work being a mainstay of your practice and life. Here are your options:
1. Do an integrated vascular surgery residency and then do a CTS fellowship. This gives you the background to do the endo wire/stent work and open arch stuff because you know how to put people on bypass.
2. Do an integrated vascular surgery residency and then do the complex aortic fellowship at Toronto (or similar program) where you can learn to put people on LHB while also learning the complex fen stuff.
3. Do an I6 CTS and depending on your comfort level do an advanced aortic fellowship afterwards at a place like Houston or Penn.
I'm sure there are other options out there but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head that would give you the background to have the skills to maintain an open aortic practice. Remember that no one is just going to give it to you. You're gonna have to work your way up and have the resultant success where people think you're good enough to keep referring patients to you. Hope this helps. Cheers.