The first CLI International Summit began on Thursday, Oct. 27 at Hotel InterContinental in Miami, Florida. This summit focuses on the interventional treatment of Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI). Hurricane Wilma forced the summit schedule to be slightly abbreviated, but Thursday’s agenda continued as planned. This inaugural summit was held simultaneously with the start of the annual New Cardiovascular Horizons (NCVH) conference, the fourth largest cardiovascular conference in America.

The CLI International Summit and NCVH are hosted by Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS), a south Louisiana group of cardiovascular physicians. CIS takes a multidisciplinary approach to cardiovascular care and emphasizes that approach through these conferences, where medical experts from around the world meet to teach and to learn the latest interventional techniques, which are less invasive than the procedures of the past and require less recovery time.

During the morning hours of the CLI Summit, live interventional cases were satellite fed from Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, La., the town that is home to the corporate headquarters of CIS. These procedures were performed by Dr. Craig Walker, founder and medical director of CIS and conference co-chair. The cases were used during educational sessions to illustrate interventional techniques used to open blockages that restrict blood flow to the limbs. A lack of blood flow to nourish the extremities can cause pain, non- healing wounds and eventually amputation.

In an interview following the procedures, Dr. Walker stated, “200,000 amputations are performed annually in the U.S. Perhaps as many as 90% of those amputations could be avoided by the use of new techniques.”

Today’s cardiovascular physician has a variety of interventional choices, including lasers, stents and atherectomy devices that can save not only limbs, but lives as well. Poor post-amputation survival rates illustrate the importance of avoiding amputation whenever possible. Only 50% of amputees live longer than 3-4 years after this extreme trauma to the body.

The message of this conference is of great significance to all of those involved. When Hurricane Katrina forced organizers to move the event from New Orleans to Miami, Dr. David Allie, CIS director of cardiothoracic and endovascular surgery and peripheral vascular studies, noted, “The conference is too important to cancel.” Drs. Allie and Walker have served as conference co-chairmen throughout the six years of its existence.

Despite Hurricane Wilma’s visit to the Miami region just prior to the re-located event, a full house watched the lives cases that were transmitted to the Thursday morning session. Organizers were pleased with the turnout of attendees, who hail from around the globe.

Additional live cases performed by CIS physicians were transmitted to Miami on Thursday afternoon and again on Friday. NCVH concludes on Saturday.

For more information about the NCVH, visit the conference Web site at www.newcvhorizons.com or call Jonathan Carothers at 985-855-4834. For information about CIS, log on to www.cardio.com