REPORTING FROM THE AVLS PRO VENOUS REGISTRY

By Dr. Robert Worthington-Kirsch

One of the pillars of the AVLS is our commitment to science and research in venous and lymphatic medicine. The membership supports research through several projects, including the PRO Venous Registry, by providing grants for clinical trials. The AVLS Fellows Grant encourages younger members to get involved in research activities, publish cutting-edge research in Phlebology, and present research at our Annual Congress.

This year the theme of the Annual Congress is “Show Me the Data.” Research in our area is maturing with more and higher-quality studies presented each year. This year is also the first time several working groups will be reporting out studies based on data from the PRO Registry at Annual Congress.

Teams from within the AVLS are working on preparing abstracts on a number of projects from the Registry, including a general overview of patient symptom severity before and after treatment of superficial venous insufficiency, an overview of current practice patterns in phlebectomy, a comparison of post-procedure complication rates after radiofrequency ablation to those after endovenous adhesive ablation, variations in disease presentation and treatment between rural and urban communities, and several studies about the utilization and complication risks of truncal ablation using proprietary endovenous microfoam. Some of these studies are designed to answer specific questions that some of our industry sponsors have posed. Additionally, our teams of investigators designed studies to hopefully answer questions important to the entire community of those working in venous and lymphatic medicine.

We want to encourage you, the reader, to partner with us by becoming a data contributor to the Registry. The more data we receive and the wider the range of practices from which we receive that data, the better our science is. We will get stronger evidence to support evolving guidelines and clinical resources. This translates into better patient care, better outcomes for our patients, and better establishment of the validity of the care we provide in the eyes of other entities with interest in our practices.

In addition to providing data, data contributors have the opportunity to join our research teams and task forces. This allows them to have input into the development of study topics, the execution of these studies, and opportunities for presentation at meetings and authorship in the literature.