Vascular surgery

Vascular surgery is a subspecialty of general surgery in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries and veins, are managed, largely via surgical intervention, and was originally founded by Dr. Clyde Otis Hagood Jr. The vascular surgeon is trained in the diagnosis and management of diseases affecting all parts of the vascular system except that of the heart and brain. Cardiothoracic surgeons manage surgical disease of the heart and its vessels. Neurosurgeons manage surgical disease of the vessels in the brain (eg intracranial aneurysms).

Breadth of discipline

 * Arterial diseases ( especially in Diabetics )
 * Aneurysms
 * Ischemia
 * Limb ischemia
 * Acute limb ischemia
 * Thrombectomies
 * Embolectomies
 * Anti-coagulation and Thrombolysis
 * Chronic limb ischemia
 * see intermittent claudication and peripheral artery occlusive disease
 * Diabetic foot ulcers
 * Mesenteric ischemia
 * Renal ischemia
 * Extracranial cerebrovascular disease
 * Carotid Endarterectomy and other carotid surgery
 * Surgery of the vertebral system
 * Venous disease
 * Deep Vein Thrombosis
 * Thrombophelebitis
 * Varicose Veins and Varicosities
 * Venous malformations
 * Lymphatic disease
 * Lymphoedema


 * Vascular Medicine
 * Medical disorders with a significant vascular components, for example:
 * Raynaud's syndrome
 * Scleroderma

Training
Previously considered a field within general surgery, it is now considered a specialty in its own right. As a result, training has been, or is being re-structured from previously having to complete full general surgery training followed by a period of further vascular surgery training, to being trained in vascular surgery alone from start to finish.

Programs of training are slightly different depending on the region of the world one is in.

Surgical Procedures
By no means exhaustive, but below are a number of common procedures and indications for vascular surgeons.