The Vascular Surgery Fellowship is an ACGME approved two year program, for two fellows per year, offering clinical experience including the core service rotation, an endovascular interventional rotation, a clinical non-invasive vascular lab experience and a research experience.

The cores of the service rotation are at UPMC Health System Presbyterian and Shadyside Hospitals where the fellows are challenged by a vast array of vascular surgery cases. All ten full-time surgeons hold privileges and participate in the provision of care at these institutions. The vascular surgery fellows manage the core vascular surgery clinical service at each hospital. General surgical residents rotate on the services and share in call responsibilities. All patients admitted are assigned to an attending vascular surgeon. The patient populations are a mixture of elective, scheduled admissions from the office and urgent transfers into Presbyterian Hospital. Fellows have an opportunity to attend clinic virtually any day of the week at Shadyside Hospital and can work with all surgeons in the group

The operative experience is one rich in exposure to the treatment of the following illnesses: aneurysms, carotid artery stenosis, peripheral artery disease, renal arterial stenosis, leg ulcers, traumatic injuries to the arteries and veins and leg claudication. The vascular surgery fellow will acquire an operative experience in excess of 300 cases per year as performed by the vascular surgeons at UPMC Presbyterian and Shadyside. The fellows are given a gradual increase in direct responsibility for pre- and postoperative patient care, and for the performance of surgical procedures under the direct supervision of the attending vascular surgeons.

Under the direction of Dr. Makaroun, the Vascular Surgery Division has an active endovascular program which to date has performed over 1200 endovascular repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms. Research in endografts has been very active at UPMC where the surgeons have been involved in the Phase II trials of many endoluminal devices. The University of Pittsburgh group is also involved in the testing of other devices on the forefront of endoluminal therapy including carotid stents and filters, fenestrated abdominal and thoracic endografts.

While on the endovascular interventional radiology rotation,during the first year, the vascular surgery fellow achieves familiarity and experience in diagnostic and percutaneous vascular interventions, indications, and angiographic interpretation, all under the direction of the attending vascular surgeon and the interventional radiologists- Fellows perform a wide variety of procedures including carotid stenting, mesenteric interventions, percutaneous renal revascularizations and superficial femoral artery recanalizations. Recent fellows have logged more than 300 diagnostic and 100 therapeutic interventional procedures.

The vascular surgery fellow gains experience with the performance and interpretation of vascular lab studies under the direction of the Director of the Vascular Lab during the first year of fellowship. The fellow develops hands-on scanning skills and is given more responsibility to provide preliminary interpretations.

The Vascular Surgery Fellow is responsible for the case presentations at the weekly combined Vascular Surgery/Interventional Radiology Conference attended by the interventional radiology and vascular surgery faculty, visiting surgeons, community vascular surgeons, general surgical residents and medical students. Vascular Conference consists of weekly case presentations and discussions, review of upcoming operative cases, journal club review, and a research conference. At the research conference, basic science topics are discussed during presentations by the faculty of the division, post doctoral and graduate students in the laboratories or collaborating faculty from other divisions. Visiting physicians, both locally and nationally, are invited to lecture on a regular basis.