The Changing Roles of Radiologists,Cardiologists, and Vascular Surgeonsin Percutaneous Peripheral Arterial Interventions During a Recent Five-Year Interval

摘要

This study aimed to determine the relative roles of radiologists, cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and other physicians in performing percutaneous peripheral arterial interventions and how these roles have changed over a recent 5-year period. The authors reviewed the Medicare Part B fee-for-service databases between 1997 and 2002 for the Current Procedural Terminology (4th ed.) (CPT-4) surgical procedure codes for percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of noncardiac peripheral arteries (six codes), the transcatheter placement of noncardiac intravascular stents (two codes), and endovascular aortic stent graft placement (six codes). Using the Medicare physician specialty codes, procedure volume in each CPT-4 code was determined for radiologists, cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and other physicians. Percentage changes from 1997 to 2002 were calculated for PTA and intravascular stent placement procedures.