Prof. Rob Fitridge

Professor Robert Fitridge is a Professor of Vascular Surgery at the University of Adelaide and Head of Vascular Surgery at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

He was elected to the Board of Vascular Surgery of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2001 and elected as Chair for 2003-07, during which time the vascular curriculum was developed. During that time, he was responsible for vascular training in Australasia and played a key role in the development of a formal vascular curriculum which is now available on-line in modular format. He has co-edited a textbook, "Mechanisms of Vascular Disease: A textbook for vascular surgeons" which provides resource material for a significant proportion of the newly developed vascular curriculum. He was appointed Examiner in Vascular Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2001 and Senior Examiner in 2007.

He has also written 17 book chapters on a range of topics in medical student textbooks. He is very active in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. He undertakes regular outreach clinics in regional South Australia and teaches medical and allied health students on these visits. He is supervisor of Vascular training at TQEH and has developed an Adelaide teaching program for vascular trainees.

He has extensive experience in risk assessment and clinical management of abdominal aortic aneurysms. He has been the reference vascular surgeon in the government-funded study of the early and mid-term results of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR). The project was active from 1998 until 2008 and involved recruitment and surveillance of 961 cases. This work has allowed development of a model, which can be used to predict individual outcomes following EVAR. This model is currently being prospectively evaluated in 45 Australian hospitals and 2 major referral centres in the UK within a project funded by the NHMRC (2009-13). His expertise in management of abdominal aortic aneurysm has also resulted in him being invited to join the International Executive Committee overseeing a large multicentre trial evaluating a new endovascular stent graft.

Current research interests include: 

Vascular reactivity in peripheral arterial disease
Predictive outcome modelling following major surgical procedures
Evaluation of minimally invasive techniques in vascular surgery, including endoluminal repair of aortic aneurysms
Outcomes from interventions for the diabetic foot
Assessing optimal interventions in appropriate patients in the High Risk Clinic
Local and gut permeability effects of skeletal muscle reperfusion injury
Biomarkers in AAA and medical interventions in small AAA.