Faculty members co-edit book on handling surgical complications

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences faculty members Maciej L. Dryjski and Linda M. Harris have co-edited a book to help surgeons at all levels of training and practice manage and prevent complications that may occur in the operating room and angiography suites.

Dryjski and Harris, both professors of surgery, are co-editors of “Complications in Endovascular Surgery,” which was published by Elsevier in January and is available in hardcover and e-book form.

“This book is unique. There has never been a book in surgical literature addressing the perioperative complications during endovascular procedures,” says Dryjski, medical director of vascular and endovascular surgery at Kaleida Health.

The book features illustrated instructions that explain how to avoid and manage common and uncommon complications. It also offers a practical guide to devices used in the operating room for specific procedures.

“There really is nothing like it out there,” says Harris, director of the vascular surgery fellowship and vascular surgery integrated residency programs. “There are a lot of books available about how to do procedures, but they don’t really talk about the issues, much less device-related issues.”

Having the book available in digital form was a game-changer, according to the authors.

“Very often during endovascular procedures we have a clinical specialist from the surgical device company assisting us and telling us how to get out of difficult problems,” Dryjski says. “But sometimes we don’t have representatives in the operating room, or they may not be experienced representatives. Now, because the book is also in electronic form, you can just open the chapter on your smartphone, read how to get out of trouble, and go on.”

“We all carry our smartphones with us, and a lot of people carry tablets. When you’re in the midst of a procedure and something isn’t going the way you’d like, you can look in the book and easily identify what to do. Having this in digital form is a huge bonus,” Harris says.

The book is tailored for anyone involved in interventional vascular-type procedures.

“In addition to the trainees, the people in practice can also benefit, because we each have our preferred devices that we’re more comfortable with,” Harris says. “Even for those who have been doing this for a long time, this book can be very beneficial.”

Hasan H. Dosluoglu, professor of surgery and chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery, and Elad I. Levy, the L. Nelson Hopkins III, MD, professor and chair of neurosurgery, are among the associate editors. 

Other associate editors are from Boston University School of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Center and Lund University in Sweden.

Chapter authors from the Jacobs School are Gregory S. Cherr, professor of surgery; G. Richard Curl, clinical assistant professor of surgery; Sikandar Z. Khan, clinical assistant professor of surgery; Brittany C. Montross, clinical assistant professor of surgery; Mariel Rivero, clinical assistant professor of surgery; Adnan Siddiqui, professor and vice chair of neurosurgery; and Kenneth V. Snyder, assistant professor of neurosurgery.

Resident and fellow authors — from the vascular surgery integrated residency, neurosurgery residency and neuroendovascular fellowship programs — include Gursant S. Atwal, Jeffrey Beecher, Vernard Fennell, Dimitrios G. Koudoumas, Jaims Lim, John F. Morrison, Brendon Reilly, Hakeem Shakir, Michael Sywak and Kunal Vakharia.

Dryjski, Harris, Cherr, Dosluoglu, Khan, Montross and Rivero see patients at UBMD Surgery; Levy, Siddiqui and Snyder see patients at UBMD Neurosurgery.