What was a high point for 2007?

Peter Hadjipetro and I started doing endovascular repairs in December 2000, and we were the first surgeons in Queensland to do that, and mid 2007 we began doing a percutaneous technique using the Prostar device. This meant that our patients didn’t have any large incision which usually necessitated intensive care management for at least 24 to 48 hours post op, and then five to seven days in the ward, and then a significant recuperation period of five to ten months to fully recover. But in this case we had a patient coming in at 6 am in one morning going home the next morning, going home at 11 am.

What did the new technique involve?

The Prostar device is a catheter based device, which is introduced into the artery. The incision is limited to a one centimetre incision in each groin. It carries four needles in, which are sheathed, and then the needles are unsheathed inside the vessel, and withdrawn through the vessel wall, and as they come back through the vessel wall they carry four sutures with them. These sutures are set aside, the needles are removed, and the sutures are then used at the end of the procedure to close the vessel. He was filmed on TV a few days later, I think two days later, moving about the house and saying that he felt no discomfort of any sort and that he had no pain of any sort. So that the step to doing percutaneously is quite significant, I think that that equates to a better service delivery for the patient.