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Elizabeth Horn
Jonathan Cunha, MD, MS, presented the Quick Shot presentation, “Maybe it Wasn’t A Big Deal, Because You Can’t See the Inside: Hearing the Gaps in EVAR Surveillance” during the 21st Annual Academic Surgical Congress held February 3 - 5 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
After endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), annual follow-up care with CT scanning or ultrasound can help detect early problems that could lead to life-threatening complications, including aortic rupture.
In this study, Dr. Cunha and co-authors, Mary Byrnes, PhD, MUP, and Nicholas Osborne, MD, MS, sought to understand why some patients don’t return for recommended follow-up.
The team spoke with patients, doctors, and advanced practice providers and found that patients sometimes miss important follow-ups due to unclear instructions and inconsistent tracking systems. Variations in care-team education can also play a factor.
“With less pain, a small incision, and fast recovery, many patients feel ‘fixed’ soon after their procedure and may not realize why they have to keep coming back for check-ups,” said Dr. Cunha.
“What patients might not know is that the aneurysm isn’t gone—it’s just blocked off from blood flow, and the device used to fix it is man-made. Like any device, there’s a chance it could fail in the future, and we don’t always know when or which ones will have problems.”
Yearly follow-ups, even when patients are feeling well, are essential to keeping individuals safe and healthy.
This study suggests that making patient instructions clearer, tracking appointments more closely, and ensuring all care providers give the same, easy-to-understand messages about the importance of regular check-ups can improve patients’ quality of care and outcomes after EVAR.