Vascular Surgery

Aneurysms are bulging areas of arteries that pose a risk of rupture and death with rupture. We care for:

• Abdominal aortic aneurysms
• Thoracic aortic aneurysms
• Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms
• Visceral (arteries of the abdomen) artery aneurysms
• Peripheral artery (arteries to arms and legs) aneurysms

Aortic Aneurysm 

Your aorta is your largest artery. It carries blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Cardiac surgeons treat conditions that affect most areas of the aorta.

But vascular surgeons treat disorders of your abdominal aorta. This is the lowest part of the aorta. It runs through your belly and supplies blood to your pelvis and legs. Aortic aneurysm is the most common aortic condition.

Treatment options include:

• Open aneurysm repair with arterial reconstruction
• Thoracic Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (TEVAR)
• Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (EVAR)
• Fenestrated Endovascular Aneurysm Repair (FEVAR)
• Endovascular peripheral aneurysm treatment with stents

Aortic Aneurysm Causes

Several things raise your risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm, including: 

• Bicuspid aortic valve disease
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Marfan and Loeys-Dietz syndromes

Aortic Aneurysm Treatment

If doctors diagnose you with an enlarging aorta or aortic aneurysm, they’ll monitor you with CT scans. Once an aneurysm reaches a certain size, treatment becomes necessary.

• Surgery: Surgery is the only treatment for aneurysms of the first portion of the aorta closest to the heart and is performed by cardiac surgeons. Open surgery involves opening your chest, removing the diseased portion of the aorta and replacing it with a synthetic tube. Sometimes deep cooling of the body is used to help protect your brain and other organs.Traditional open aneurysm surgery is also used for complex abdominal aortic aneurysms and requires open reconstruction of the abdominal aorta using a synthetic graft.
• Thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR): For aneurysms or disease in the next part of the aorta in your chest (thoracic aorta), Vascular Surgeons and Cardiac Surgeons work together to perform either open surgery or a minimally invasive surgery called thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). In this procedure, we deliver a graft to your aorta via a catheter. We insert the catheter into an artery in your groin and move it to your aorta with X-ray guidance. Once there, the graft covers the aneurysm. These procedures are quicker than traditional open surgery and have a faster recovery time.
• Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR): For aneurysms of the abdominal aorta, we offer endovascular aortic aneurysm repair. This is a minimally invasive procedure to deliver a graft to your aorta to cover the aneurysm using X-ray guidance. The graft is delivered through small incisions in the groins. The recovery from this procedure is much faster than traditional open surgery. For aneurysms that involve arterial branches in the abdomen, we also offer fenestrated aortic aneurysm repair (FEVAR) using custom made endografts.

Arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to your body. Our specialists offer open arterial reconstruction and endovascular revascularization for a variety of conditions including:

Treatment options include:

Your carotid arteries and vertebral arteries carry blood to your brain. Severe disease of these arteries can lead to stroke or vision loss. Our specialists offer management and care for a variety of conditions involving your carotid arteries:

• Carotid body tumors 
• Carotid artery stenosis (narrowing)
• Vertebral artery stenosis
• Vertebrobasilar insufficiency
• Subclavian artery stenosis (narrowing)

Treatment options include:

• Carotid artery stenting
• Carotid endarterectomy (removing plaque)
• Carotid-subclavian bypass
• Subclavian artery transposition
• Vertebral artery transposition

Vascular access gives doctors a way to deliver treatment through your blood vessels. Types of vascular access include:

• Hemodialysis access (a way to reach the blood for hemodialysis, a treatment that filters your blood with creation of arteriovenous fistulas, arteriovenous grafts, or hybrid catheter-grafts if you have kidney failure)
• Venous access to deliver fluids, medication and nutrition

Veins are blood vessels that carry deoxygenated blood back to your heart and lungs. Disease of the valves in the veins can lead to varicose veins, leg swelling, and wounds. Clot in  the veins (superficial thrombophlebitis or deep venous thrombosis) can cause leg swelling and certain types of clot are at risk for traveling to the lungs. 

We offer sclerotherapy, venous ablation, and phlebectomy for the treatment of varicose veins and spider veins.