Does Defensive Medicine Change the Behaviors of Vascular Surgeons? A Qualitative Review

Table 1

Vascular surgery pathologies: carotid stenosis, aortic aneurysms, aortic dissections, and peripheral arterial disease, evaluated in the light of the indication, timing, and technique.

	Indication	Timing	Techniques
Carotid stenosis	To treat symptomatic stenosis or only haemodynamic asymptomatic lesions	Within 24 hours from symptoms onset or within 14 days	Carotid endarterectomy or carotid artery stenting
Aortic aneurysms	To treat on the basis of the diameter or on the basis of accompanying symptoms and/or aortic morphology	In case of symptoms: as soon as possible or after careful patient evaluation	Open repair or endovascular repair
Aortic dissections	To treat all the dissection or selectively on the basis of visceral malperfusion, aneurismatic dilatation, and uncontrolled pain and hypertension	Within 15 days from symptoms onset or after 15 days	Open repair or endovascular repair
Peripheral arterial disease	To treat patients presenting with claudication or only patients with critical limb ischemia	Critical limb ischemia presenting patient should always be treated in urgent/emergent setting	Open repair or endovascular repair.; In case of endovascular repair, use or do not use stent, covered stent, and drug eluting devices
	To recognize patients presenting with acute limb ischemia