About Vascular Surgery
Vascular surgery is a specialty of medicine that treats problems with the blood vessels in the body. Patients may require vascular surgery if they develop disease or problems in the blood vessels.
Surgical procedures can range from being minimally invasive to open procedures. All of the open procedures are performed in an operating room in the hospital. With advancing technology within the last couple of decades, many of the minimally invasive procedures are performed in the clinic, but there are still several procedures that are minimally invasive, but due to the location of the vessels, are still necessary to be done in the operating room.
Training required for Vascular Surgery
In order to be trained in the techniques of vascular surgery, a person must graduate from 4 years of medical school, attend general surgery residency for 5 years, and lastly a fellowship, which is a specialty training program in the surgical techniques related to the blood vessels, that is 2 years long. Besides just the surgical procedures and techniques that are taught for vascular surgery, expertise in using ultrasound and doppler imaging are an important part of vascular surgery to properly diagnosis, but also for guidance during surgical procedures.
Why would you need Vascular Surgery
As vascular surgery focuses on the blood vessels, this includes both the arteries and veins. Since vessels run all through the body, any area in the body may be affected. Some veins or arteries may be occluded either from cholesterol plaques or a clot. Some arteries develop an aneurysm, which is a weak point in the wall of the artery that develops a bulge. Some veins have failure of the valves, which leads to pooling of the blood, stretching the veins, leading to varicose veins.
Types of Vascular Surgery
With all the different complications that can occur in the vessels, here is a list of common types of vascular surgery.
- Endarterectomy: This procedure cleans out the arteries from blockages, such as cholesterol plaques. It is most commonly performed on the carotid arteries, but can be performed on any artery.
- Bypass: This procedure bypasses the non-functioning or incompetent arteries, much like performed on the heart, but is usually in the legs from peripheral vascular disease.
- Stenting: This procedure applies a device within the arteries that open the arteries to allow for proper blood flow in arteries that may have cholesterol plaque build-up that does not require an endarterectomy.
- Balloon Angioplasty: This is a procedure that uses a balloon through the affected arteries to dilate the arteries.
- Aneurysm repair: This procedure corrects the weakness and bulging in the artery wall to prevent rupture. The aorta is the most common vessels.
- Endovascular laser therapy: This procedure causes scarring of varicose veins so that they no longer allow blood flow.
Meet ABMS Board Certified Surgeon, Dr. Mackay
Vascular surgery can help repair damaged and diseased blood vessels. If you have been diagnosed with any particular problems with your arteries or veins, vascular surgery may be the right option for your treatment.
Contact the office of Dr. Edward Mackay, a board certified vascular surgeon providing services to patients in the Tampa area to learn more about vascular surgery.