Q: Is there a difference in common vascular surgical procedures performed in India and UK?

A:There is no difference in the principles of the surgery in India and UK. The operations do, however, differ depending on the facilities that are available in a particular hospital, be it in India or UK. There is, however, a fundamental difference between the two health delivery systems. The various common vascular operations in UK, like surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) and Carotid Endarterectomies, are being nationally evaluated and standard protocols devised and followed. This particular system does not yet exist in India as there is no registry maintained even in certain tertiary centres, hence the audits are either not done or not reliable enough to draw any guidelines for future. We hope that in future that vascular surgeons across India and centres of excellence will find it important to audit their own work.