Simulator training on pulsatile vascular models significantly improves surgical skills and the quality of carotid patch plasty.

Objective: Vascular surgeons perform numerous highly sophisticated and delicate procedures. Due to restrictions in training time and the advent of endovascular techniques, new concepts including alternative environments for training and assessment of surgical skills are required. Over the past decade, training on simulators and synthetic models has become more sophisticated and lifelike.

Calf muscle oxygen saturation and the effects of supervised exercise training for intermittent claudication.

Objective: The mechanisms underlying the symptomatic improvement witnessed as a result of exercise training in intermittent claudication remain unclear. There is no reproducible evidence to support increased limb blood flow resulting from neovascularization. Changes in oxygenation of active muscles as a result of blood redistribution are hypothesized but unproven.

Local versus systemic mechanisms underlying supervised exercise training for intermittent claudication.

The mechanisms by which exercise training improves intermittent claudication remain unclear. In this article, the effects of local and systemic physiological factors on improved exercise tolerance after a supervised exercise program in claudicants are investigated. A total of 60 patients were randomized to 3 months of supervised exercise followed by 3 months of unsupervised exercise, or to exercise advice alone (control).