by Rodney D. Raabe, M.D.

The 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting for the Society of Interventional Radiology was held in Washington, D.C., this year from March 15-20 at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. The setting for this year’s convention was not only an excellent venue for the meetings and scientific sessions, but also allowed close access to tour the nation’s capital and its landmarks.

This year there were 5,317 total registrants, of which 3,407 were physicians, nurses, and technologists. The meeting included 142 exhibitors. There were 466 international doctors at this year’s convention.

There were many varied educational and scientific sessions during the course of the week. The meeting was highlighted by two symposiums on opening day and two on the closing day. On the first day, the symposiums featured a comprehensive course on Peripheral Vascular Disease and another course on Morbidity and Mortality - Learning from our Mistakes. The final half-day symposiums concentrated on New Therapies in Interventional Oncology and Musculoskeletal Interventions. There were a total of 8 plenarary sessions. There were 23 categorical courses. There were 24 scientific sessions that included 6-8 abstracts at each session. There were over 150 workshops during the course of the meeting. Gold medal winners this year included Dr. Gary Becker, Dr. Gary Dorfman, Dr. Mark H. Wholey, and Dr. Ernest J. Ring for outstanding service to the Society over many years. One of the highlights of the meeting was a categorical course coordinated by the American College of Phlebology’s recent past-president, Robert Minn. This categorical course not only dealt with the common treatments of varicose veins, but also looked into discussions regarding perferator reflux, pudendal varices, and association with ovarian vein reflux and pelvic congestion. The meeting was also highlighted by multiple workshops directly educating interventional radiologists in varicose vein treatments and practice development.

There were two exciting scientific papers included at the meeting that were reported. The first one featured the new deep vein thrombosis registry which reported scientific data on a 500 patient registry. This paper demonstrated that deep venous thrombosis treatment was quicker with the mechanical trellis device and thrombolytics for breaking up blood clots than using thrombolytics alone. Another exciting new breakthrough treatment was for severe frostbite in which intra-arterial injection of thrombolytic therapy was successful in re-opening recent frozen clotted arteries. This is the first new breakthrough therapy for frostbite victims in decades. Radiofrequency Ablation of Renal Tumors was a paper that was featured on Good Morning America.

Overall, the Society of Interventional Radiology meeting in Washington D.C. was a tremendous success. Next year’s meeting will be in San Diego, CA, from March 7-12, 2009.