History of Innovation

Decades of progressive treatment

Beginning more than 75 years ago, a series of discoveries and developments led to the Emory Vascular Service being regarded as a global leader in patient care, research, and the training of future leaders in the care of patients with vascular disease. Dr. Daniel Elkin, the first Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Emory and a 20th century pioneer in the treatment of vascular disease, published a pivotal report in 1934 detailing treatment of a series of 62 aneurysms, the largest collection of patients at that time to be successfully managed by surgical intervention. During the 1960s, Dr. Garland Perdue, Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery, initiated the first stroke prevention program at Emory, establishing what has remained one of the division's primary areas of focus.

Additional highlights illustrate that the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Therapy has continued to provide safe and advanced treatment options to its patients:

	Endovascular therapy, a method of treating vascular disease by working within blood vessels using stents and catheters, was pioneered at Emory in the 1970s. Today, endovascular-based treatments are widely used to manage a variety of vascular conditions including aortic aneurysm repair and arterial and venous blockages.
	Under the leadership of Dr. Robert B. Smith, III, during the 1980's and 1990's, carotid endarterectomy was comprehensively scrutinized and refined at Emory for treatment of carotid artery disease. Division surgeons are now at the forefront of assessing carotid angioplasty and stenting as active investigators in nearly a dozen national clinical trials sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and others.
	Dr. Elliot Chaikof, current division director, initiated a wide range of clinical trials in 1992 at Emory that were essential to the development of endovascular grafts for the treatment of abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms. Today, division surgeons are global leaders in these minimally invasive techniques, having treated over 750 patients with aortic aneurysms. In early 2008, Dr. Karthikeshwar Kasirajan was among the first few physicians in the United States and the first in Georgia to use the Talent Thoracic Stent Graft (manufactured by Medtronic) to treat aortic aneurysms. The new stent makes endovascular aneurysm repair accessible to an additional 25 percent of all patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms.
	In 2000, the division was one of the first programs in the country to evaluate gene therapy for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease. Innovative clinical programs to develop and test new pharmacologic agents directed at the treatment of peripheral arterial disease and aortic aneurysms are ongoing.
	In January 2007, the world's first convertible ultrasound system was installed in the Emory Non-Invasive Vascular Laboratory, a nationally accredited program that provides patients with access to state-of-the-art imaging and other systems for assessment of vascular health.
	The clinical trials undertaken by the Vascular Clinical Research Unit at Emory provide the foundation for careful assessment of cutting edge procedures and drugs and making these promising new technologies available to patients.
	The division's basic science research program has received over 14 million dollars of funding from the NIH over the past 10 years.