TASC II – A CSVS DOCUMENT

Kenneth A. Harris, Lars Norgren, William Hiatt.

The ‘Transatlantic Consensus Conference on Peripheral Arterial Disease’ was published in 2000 in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, the European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and in Angiology.  The Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery was an active part in developing the 107 recommendations and 47 critical issues contained within this document.  Criticisms of the document, however, were that it was large and inaccessible in particular to general practitioners who could implement many of the recommendations.  TASC II was set up to increase the accessibility of the document to all branches of health care professionals to update the document as well as to provide rigorous grading for the recommendations.  With greater worldwide representation the TASC II Document Steering Committee has developed such a document. Representation was present from the disciplines of surgery, interventional radiology, vascular medicine, cardiology, diabetology, podiatry and included expertise in health economics and clinical epidemiology.  The draft document received universal approval from all societies (in contrast to the former document) and was published simultaneously in North America and Europe.  There is a new and updated classification system of arterial lesions with recommendations regarding endovascular versus surgical management.  Recommendations have been expanded to include risk factor modification in the generalized disease of atherosclerosis.  Although the document does not address intraoperative and endovascular technical details in depth it does have recommendations regarding appropriate treatment. 

This paper will highlight the changes included in the document, showcasing Canadian involvement in the process.  Also, possible next steps to increase the profile of peripheral arterial disease in the Canadian population will be discussed.