The Aortic Team Model and Collaborative Decision Pathways for the Management of Complex Aortic Disease: Clinical Practice Update From the Canadian Cardiovascular Society/Canadian Society of Cardiac Surgeons/Canadian Society for Vascular Surgery/Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology

Disease of the aortic arch, descending thoracic, or thoracoabdominal aorta necessitates dedicated expertise across medical, endovascular, and surgical specialties. Cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, and others have expertise and skills that aid in the management of patients with complex aortic disease. No specialty is uniformly expert in all aspects of required care. Because of this dispersion of expertise across specialties, an aortic team model approach to decision-making and treatment is advocated. A nonhierarchical partnership across specialties within an interdisciplinary aortic clinic ensures that all treatment options are considered and promotes shared decision-making between the patient and all aortic experts. Furthermore, regionalization of care for aortic disease of increased complexity assures that the breadth of treatment options is available and that favourable volume-outcome ratios for high-risk procedures are maintained. An awareness of best practice care path-ways for patient referrals for preventative management, acute care scenarios, chronic care scenarios, and pregnancy might facilitate a more organized management schema for aortic disease across Canada and improve lifelong surveillance initiatives.

Automated summary

Diseases of the aorta require expertise from multiple specialties, and a collaborative approach is advocated for decision-making and treatment. Regionalization of care ensures a wide range of treatment options and maintains favorable outcomes for high-risk procedures. Understanding best practice care pathways can improve the management of aortic disease.