Shayna Brathwaite receives GVS Robert B. Smith Award
SEPTEMBER 2020
Shayna A. Brathwaite, MD, MMS, PGY-7 Emory vascular surgery fellow, received the Robert B. Smith, III, MD, Award for best resident/fellow presentation at the Georgia Vascular Society 8th Annual Scientific Sessions.
Her presentation was entitled "Contemporary outcomes of popliteal vein banding in the United States," and will also be published in Annals of Vascular Surgery, the official journal of the GVS. Dr. Brathwaite was first author, and her mentor Ravi Rajani, MD, associate professor of surgery and chief of vascular and endovascular surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital, was senior author.
The study evaluated popliteal vein external banding (PVEB) as a surgical therapy for treating the severe edema, recurrent ulceration, and deep venous reflux caused by chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a challenging vascular condition that impedes the flow of blood from the legs to the heart. PVEB entails creation of a vascular patch that is wrapped around the popliteal vein and tightened to reduce the vein's diameter, thereby exerting additional pressure that helps to prevent blood from flowing backwards away from the heart.
The post-PVEB cohort examined by Drs. Brathwaite and Rajani consisted of 12 patients who underwent the procedure from 2018-2020. Notably, 75% of them had a history of deep vein thrombosis on the ipsilateral extremity and 67% had active ulceration.
At one-month follow-up, 91.6% of patients reported reduction in swelling/edema and pain. At three-months, 75% were healed of active ulceration. Drs. Brathwaite and Rajani concluded that PVEB is a safe and effective treatment modality for patients with severe edema or venous stasis ulceration related to CVI secondary to deep venous reflux.