Training standards for physicians performing peripheral angioplasty and other percutaneous peripheral vascular interventions. A statement for health professionals from the Special Writing Group of the Councils on Cardiovascular Radiology, Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, and Clinical Cardiology, the American Heart Association.

PERCUTANEOUS transluminal angioplasty of peripheral, renal, and visceral arteries has been in widespread clinical use for more than a decade, and it is estimated that approximately 100,000 of these procedures are performed annually in the United States. In recent years controversy has developed among the various medical disciplines about who is qualified to perform percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (and associated peripheral interventions such as intra-arterial thrombolysis, stent placement, atherectomy, and laser angioplasty) and what training standards should be established for physicians entering this field. For this reason, in late 1990 the American Heart Association’s Councils on Cardiovascular Radiology, Cardiovascular Surgery (now CardioThoracic and Vascular Surgery), and Clinical Cardiology formed an ad hoc committee to develop training standards for peripheral percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and related percutaneous peripheral interventions. Members of the committee were interventional radiologists, vascular surgeons, interventional cardiologists, and vascular medicine physicians.