Critical challenges in open and endovascular treatment of aortic disease will be brought into focus when world leaders in cardiac, aortic, and vascular therapies return to London this spring for the 47th annual Charing Cross (CX) Symposium 2024 (23–25 April, London, UK).
CX, the world’s largest vascular meeting, has a three-year cycle of raising vascular and endovascular controversies to challenge the available evidence and reach a consensus after discussion with an expert audience.
“The highlight this year is challenges, and we have challenges in clinical practice in aortic care every day,” CX co-chair Dittmar Böckler (University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany) tells Cardiovascular News, looking ahead to the highlights on the aortic programme in 2025. “We need evidence, we need teaching, we need technical skills and tips and tricks, [and] all this will be provided by a really outstanding programme with key opinion leaders in the field of aortic disease and aortic care.”
The CX 2025 programme has sessions touching upon all vascular domains, spanning aortic, peripheral, venous, acute stroke and vascular access. The aortic pillar of the programme offers attendees insights from 119 presentations, augmented by 11 edited cases, with new data set to be brought to light in 12 podium first presentations, alongside debates on five hotly contested issues. There will also be opportunities for attendees to translate theory into practice through a series of hands-on workshops running throughout the three days.
Aortic techniques and technologies will be the focus on day one, with Böckler highlighting a case involving the treatment of a thoracoabdominal aneurysm using a four-inner-branched device as one to look out for. “We need off-the-shelf devices to treat these emergent and urgent patients, as customised devices are not available. How to handle those devices, how to implant them, [and] what the evidence is so far is the focus,” he says of the case.
Turning to the highlights among the many podium first presentations featuring at CX 2025—with more than 50 across the full programme—Böckler mentions the SUNDAY trial, a randomised trial looking at treatment options for uncomplicated type B aortic dissection (TBAD), as being of particular importance. “We have a lack of evidence there, and we are going to have the first insight into early outcomes of this trial,” he comments. Other podium first presentations include data on the impact of blood pressure on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) growth rates, risk stratification after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), a multicentre study on physician-modified endografts for very large and urgent complex AAA, and more.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in patient evaluation is among the “disruptive” technologies featuring alongside topics that impact daily clinical practice such as sarcopenia, the risk of abdominal cancer after EVAR, the use of proteomics to predict sac shrinkage after EVAR and quality-of-life assessment following vascular care.
“Something we have really neglected for years, in my mind, is quality-of-life assessment after vascular care, specifically in TBAD,” explains Böckler. “Many patients get conservative treatment, but we didn’t pay attention to their psychological status, how they behave, how they feel, so quality of life is something very new. And that’s in the programme of the aortic sessions this year.”
Among other highlights, Gustavo Oderich (University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, USA) will deliver the inaugural Roger M Greenhalgh memorial lecture, speaking on the challenges of 21st century aortic education, innovation and evidence. Citing this as one of the event’s must-attend presentations, Böckler says that the talk will continue CX founding chair Roger Greenhalgh’s legacy of advocating for the best medical education for the optimal care of patients with vascular disease.
“The unique and special thing about Charing Cross is the style of discussion”
“The unique and special thing about Charing Cross is the style of discussion,” Böckler adds, paying tribute to another of Greenhalgh’s CX legacies. “We have a one-to-one relationship between presentations and discussions. I love the discussion culture at Charing Cross. This makes it unique and special. We have a special style, a special atmosphere. Everybody can go to the microphone, ask questions, and you will get excellent answers from the leading physicians of the world.”
Attendees can join world-leading experts in the management and treatment of aortic disease from the cardiovascular, vascular and endovascular worlds who are participating in 2025 including CX aortic executive board members Oderich, Tilo Kölbel (University Heart Center Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany), Joseph Bavaria (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA), Alexander Zimmermann (University Hospital Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland), Aung Oo (St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, UK). Registration and programme details for CX 2025 can be found online at cxsymposium.com.
