Naraynsingh awarded fellowship

Vascular surgeon Prof Vijay Naraynsingh has gained further international recognition for his medical expertise. He was awarded an honorary fellowship by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on October 28. Naraynsingh was among 12 surgeons from various parts of the world who were presented with the fellowship awards at the Moscone Center, San Francisco. He is reportedly the first Trinidadian and only the second West Indian surgeon to have received the accolade in the ACS’s 105-year history.

The prestigious fellowship, according to the ACS website, is awarded to surgeons “whose education and training, professional qualifications, surgical competence, and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation and have been found to be consistent with the high standards established and demanded by the college.”

Naraynsingh has pioneered operating procedures and surgical techniques, which include a lateral approach to the profunda femoris (a branch of the common femoral artery which is responsible for providing oxygenated blood to the thigh).In addition, he is credited as the first surgeon in the Caribbean to do vascularised free tissue transfer and carotid endarterectomy for stroke. (Carotid endarterectomy is used to remove plaque from the carotid artery, and reduces the risk of a stroke or death among patients who have already had transient or mild stroke symptoms caused by moderate carotid stenosis.)Naraynsingh was awarded the Chaconia Gold Medal in 1991 for long and meritorious service in the field of medicine,