Vascular Surgery

Vascular Disease includes any condition that affects your circulatory system. This ranges from diseases of your arteries, veins and lymph vessels to blood disorders that affect circulation.

Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) commonly refers to any disease or disorder of the circulatory system outside of the brain and heart. Another name for this condition is arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

• Arteriosclerosis is a slow process that may worsen over time. The end result is usually narrowing of the arteries by a build up of minerals and fatty deposits (plaque).
• The narrowing can progress to complete blockage, or occlusion, or embolic disease in which bits of the plaque or clots break free and block off arteries.
• Strokes, heart attacks and gradual or sudden loss of circulation in the legs are often the end result of severe arteriosclerosis of the arteries which supply the brain, heart and legs with oxygen-rich blood.

Major risk factors for developing arteriosclerosis include cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, family history, high cholesterol, diabetes, poor diet, and lack of exercise.

Vascular disease can also cause potentially lethal aneurysms of the abdominal aorta (AAA), the largest artery of the body. More than 15,000 people die each year in the U.S. from rupture of an aortic aneurysm. It is estimated that more than one million people are living with undiagnosed AAA and at least 95 percent of these can be successfully treated if detected prior to rupture.

We are proud of the fact that all of our vascular specialists are Board Certified in Vascular Surgery.

American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) certification is recognized by physicians, healthcare institutions, insurers and patients as an essential tool to judge that a physician has the knowledge, experience and skills for providing quality care within their specialty.