Vascular Surgeon

What is a vascular surgeon?

A vascular surgeon is a doctor who diagnoses and treats problems with your blood vessels other than those in your heart and brain. Most vascular surgeons treat the entire spectrum of vascular disease. This includes wound care, injuries, blood clots and compression issues.

You have 60,000 miles of blood vessels throughout your body. These include arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels. Vascular surgeons are experts on these blood vessels and anything that affects them. They understand how each one works and what can go wrong with them. Vascular surgeons help you manage vascular disease so you can be at your best.

Depending on your case, you may meet a vascular surgeon for the first time in their office or at a hospital or another place where you have surgery.

Vascular surgeons are highly skilled at solving serious medical problems and working with complex anatomy. Known as the “surgeon’s surgeon,” they’re often involved in complex cases, as well as assisting when complications occur in other areas of surgical specialties. A vascular surgeon can help when someone in another surgeon’s operating room has unexpected bleeding or a blood vessel blockage.

What does a vascular surgeon do?

Vascular surgeons care for people who have diseases that affect blood vessels other than those in your heart and brain. They assess your risk for vascular issues, diagnose diseases and create treatment plans. They provide a range of medical treatments, including medications and changes to daily habits like physical activity or the foods you eat.

A vascular surgeon can save your limb and your life. They can provide treatments that help prevent stroke and aneurysm rupture and relieve symptoms from blocked arteries. They also perform procedures and surgeries to treat vascular diseases. These range from minimally invasive, catheter-based procedures to complex open surgeries. And vascular surgeons can do hybrid procedures that combine the benefits of both.

Your vascular surgeon will get to know you as an individual and support you for a long time to come. That’s because vascular surgeons help people with long-term conditions that need care over many years. Many people with blood vessel problems have other health conditions. This means their treatment plans are complex. Vascular surgeons work with other specialists to coordinate your care every step of the way.

What diseases do vascular surgeons diagnose and treat?

Vascular surgeons manage a wide range of conditions that affect your blood vessels, including:

• Aortic aneurysms (a bulge in your aorta’s wall)
• Atherosclerosis (most common)
• Autoimmune diseases of the blood vessels
• Blood clots
• Carotid artery disease (a blockage or narrow spot in your carotid artery)
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (blocked blood flow to a limb)
• Chronic venous insufficiency (damaged leg veins)
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT or blood clot)
• Dialysis access
• Diabetes-related foot ulcers
• Endoleak (blood flowing in the wrong place after a minimally invasive or endovascular aneurysm repair)
• Median arcuate ligament syndrome (compressed artery in your belly)
• Mesenteric ischemia (a shortage of blood flow in your intestines)
• Nutcracker syndrome (compressed vein in your belly)
• Thoracic outlet syndrome (compressed blood vessels and nerves in your neck and arms)
• Peripheral artery disease (narrowing of your leg arteries)
• Peripheral artery and venous aneurysms
• Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome (compressed artery behind your knee)
• May-Thurner syndrome (compressed vein in your pelvis)
• Stroke
• Superficial venous thrombosis (blood clot)
• Varicose (swollen) veins

What tests does a vascular surgeon use to diagnose me?

Vascular surgeons and their teams diagnose blood vessel problems using many different tests. These include:

• Ankle/brachial index (ABI)
• Chest X-ray
• CT angiogram
• Magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA)
• Vascular ultrasound

What procedures do vascular surgeons perform?

Vascular surgeons have the expertise to perform many procedures, including:

• Aneurysm surgery (traditional open surgery)
• Angioplasty to move aside plaque or blood clot buildup in your arteries or veins
• Atherectomy to remove plaque from blood vessels in a minimally invasive way
• Endarterectomy to remove plaque from blood vessels
• Endovascular repair of abdominal, thoracic and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms
• Bypass surgery for aortic and extremity (arm and leg) artery blockages
• Popliteal entrapment repair
• Stent placement in blood vessels
• Vena cava filter placement
• Transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) to improve blood flow in your neck
• Thoracic outlet repair
• Creating and maintaining access for dialysis
• Thrombectomy (removal of an acute blood clot from arteries or veins)
• Thrombolytic therapy (giving clot busters to break up blood clots)
• Median arcuate ligament syndrome repair (open surgery)
• Nutcracker syndrome repair (open surgery)
• Endovascular ablation of insufficient veins (leaky veins in your legs)

Why would you be referred to a vascular surgeon?

Your primary care provider may refer you to a vascular surgeon if you have a condition that prevents your blood vessels from working as they should. Healthy blood vessels keep blood moving throughout your body to all of your organs. Damage to one or more blood vessels can affect your whole body. That’s why vascular surgeons play such an important role in finding out what’s wrong and fixing the problem.

A vascular surgeon can help if you have blood vessel problems needing specialized care. This is usually how people visit a vascular surgeon for the first time. But you might also need a vascular surgeon unexpectedly, like in a medical emergency.

Hearing the word “surgeon” can feel intimidating. Many people don’t know what a vascular surgeon is until they need one. Vascular surgeons do much more than surgery. They treat many issues with prescription medication, lifestyle changes and minimally invasive procedures. But if you do need surgery, you may need to continue seeing your vascular surgeon long-term so they can monitor your condition. Together, you’ll keep an eye on things and catch any new problems that come up.