International Congress XXIII Endovascular Interventions, hosted by The Arizona Heart Institute

Nearly 1000 physicians, allied health professionals and industry from throughout the world met at the Phoenician Resort (6000 E. Camelback Road, Scottsdale) February 28th to March 4th for the International Congress XXIII Endovascular Interventions, hosted by The Arizona Heart Institute and Arizona Heart Hospital, “The People Who Touch the Heart.”


As part of this annual Congress of world expert, Dr. Edward Diethrich played host to over 900 of the general public in a forum to educate on the latest developments in endovascular treatments for cardiovascular diseases. They actually performed live minimally invasive surgeries treating an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, a Peripheral Vascular Disease Stent to restore leg circulation and a hole in the heart of a young woman who suffered a stroke in child birth. Each surgery displayed on huge theatre screens in the main ballroom, showed the surgery with the surgeon explaining the procedures, monitors of vital signs, x-rays and ultrasounds including breaking technology intravascular ultrasounds.

Arizona Heart Institute did a fabulous job of explaining each procedure and factors that lead to the need for such surgery. They made clear the complications that can arise and how we often don’t catch the problems in time. It emphasized the need for early detection to save lives.

The Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm surgery was especially meaningful to me as my mother experienced this surgery a year ago. Her eldest sister and father had both died of aneurysms in the days before we could detect such problems. Her path to the surgery and the procedure seemed more complicated than the 15 minutes of surgery we viewed. But it was nice to see it actually being done.

Before the forum vendors lined the halls displaying their wares and giving away goodies. Nurses and pharmacists were on hand to answer questions. The lines of seniors waiting to talk to the professionals, speaks to the concerns Americans have with their health care. There seem to be more questions than primary care doctors have time to answer. Public health forums like this one go a long way to helping people understand their health issues.

Then there’s the issue of following doctors orders for diet, exercise and medications. Or the issue of health insurance, procedure and prescription cost. Will the government’s attempts to create a health care system actually improve conditions? All questions to be addressed in the future…