With our experienced vascular team, advances in vascular surgery continue to optimize patient outcomes and satisfaction. Vascular surgeons at Akron General perform vascular surgeries each year as well as a variety of other interventional procedures for the treatment of vascular disease.

Compare Akron General with National Standards:

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Annual Number of AAA Repair Procedures
Average Length of Stay
Physician Board Certification
Availability of Vascular Surgeons
Availability of Endovascular Aneurysm Repair
Inpatient Mortality Rate

1. Annual Number of AAA Repair Procedures
The Leapfrog Group, a national organization devoted to improving patient safety, has suggested that a surgical program that performs at least 50 abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repairs per year has better outcomes than programs performing fewer procedures. Akron General Medical Center's surgeons performed 58 AAA repair procedures in 2006.

2. Average Length of Stay
The average length of stay (measured in days) provides general information about the efficiency of care delivery, and is therefore an important quality indicator. However, patients with a greater severity of illness may have a longer average length of stay.

According to the most recent national data from the National Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the average length of stay for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair was 7.3 days.

In 2006, Akron General Medical Center's average length of stay (ALOS) for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair was 5.12 days, which was better than the ALOS reported by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

3. Physician Board Certification
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair may be performed by a variety of different types of surgeons: vascular surgeons, cardiac surgeons, or general surgeons.

A board-certified physician has completed an approved educational training program and an evaluation process including an examination designed to assess the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to provide quality patient care in that specialty. A specialty certificate is issued by a medical specialty certifying board, which is valid nationwide. Although certification is not required for an individual physician to practice medicine, most hospitals and managed care organizations require that at least a certain percentage of their staff be "board certified" (American Board of Medical Specialties).

• Vascular surgery
  Board certification in vascular surgery is offered by the Vascular Surgery Board of the American Board of Surgery (American Board of Surgery).
• General surgery
  A General Surgeon certified by the American Board of Surgery is one who has acquired during training knowledge and experience related to the diagnosis, preoperative, operative, and postoperative management, including the management of complications, in essential content areas such as the alimentary tract; the abdomen and its contents; breast, skin, and soft tissue; the endocrine system; head and neck surgery; pediatric surgery; surgical critical care; surgical oncology; transplantation surgery; trauma and burns; and vascular surgery (American Board of Surgery).

All of (100% of Akron General Medical Center's vascular surgeons are board certified in Vascular Surgery by the American Board of Surgery.

4. Availability of Vascular Surgeons

The Dartmouth Atlas of Vascular Health Care found that, in a nationwide sample of Medicare patients undergoing vascular surgery, vascular surgeons performed 39 percent of all elective (non-emergency) abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repairs, versus 33 percent for cardiothoracic surgeons and 28 percent for general surgeons. Vascular surgeons as a group had a lower 30-day mortality rate than the cardiothoracic and general surgeons. In addition, as a group, vascular surgeons performed more elective AAA repairs per individual surgeon than did the other two groups (Journal of Vascular Surgery, October 2001: 34(4); 751-756). Other studies, using patient data from Ontario, Canada and Florida, have found similar results (Journal of Vascular Surgery, March 2001: 33(3); 447-452).

Akron General Medical Center has 4 of vascular surgeons on staff

5. Availability of Endovascular Aneurysm Repair
Since its introduction in 1991, endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) (a procedure in which a stent, or tubelike structure, is inserted into the aorta, the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body, through an incision in the groin) of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) has become widely used to repair AAA.

Because the procedure is much less invasive (the incision is much smaller and less penetrating) than traditional open repair, endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has been shown to have more short-term benefits, such as decreased length of hospitalization, reduced intensive care unit (ICU) stays, less blood loss, fewer major complications, and faster recovery. However, the long-term durability and effectiveness of EVAR has not been definitively proved by clinical studies.

In 2003, 40 percent of all elective AAA repairs were endovascular, according to an article in Vascular Disease Management (December 2005; 2(6): 165-167). However, due to differences in anatomy, fewer women are candidates for EVAR.

Recent studies indicate that the one-year survival rate after EVAR is not as high as that for the traditional open repair method of AAA surgery (The New England Journal of Medicine, June 2005; 352(23): 2398-2405). EVAR remains a viable surgical option for AAA repair and has fewer short-term risks, such as excessive blood loss and the need for transfusion, than open AAA repair.

To determine if EVAR is an option for you, check with your physician.

Endovascular aneurysm repair is available at Akron General Medical Cneter.

6. Inpatient Mortality Rate
The mortality rate (measured as a percentage) provides general information about the quality of care delivery, and can be an important quality indicator. However, some hospitals care for patients with a greater severity of illness and therefore may have a higher mortality rate.

According to the most recent national data available from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the inpatient mortality rate for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) was 6.7 percent. (HCUP).

The inpatient mortality rate for AAA repair at Akron General Medical Center was 1.7 % in 2006, which is better than the rate for AAA repair in HCUP's Nationwide Inpatient Sample.