Vascular Medicine Specialists are highly trained to treat diseases of the vascular system. Your blood vessels –arteries carrying oxygen-rich blood and veins carrying blood back to the heart — are the roadways of your circulatory system. Without smoothly flowing blood, your body cannot function. Conditions such as hardening of the arteries can create “traffic jams” in your circulatory system, obstructing the flow of blood to any part of the body.

A vascular medicine specialist does not perform open surgery but focuses on conservative and minimally invasive therapies.

A vascular medicine specialist makes sure patients with vascular health issues know and understand all their options. In short, vascular medicine specialists do not do open surgery, but they see and treat many patients who don’t require surgery. Many vascular problems can be treated conservatively with nutrition, medications, exercise and other life style modifications.

A vascular medicine specialist is able to do minimally invasive and office based procedure.

Vascular medicine specialist are trained in medical therapy of vascular disease and collaborate with other vascular specialists and together can cover the needs of their patients such as: open, complicated surgery and in minimally invasive, endovascular procedures and well as non-invasive therapy. Some patients need one, some need the other, while many need no surgery at all. Vascular medicine specialists are “treatment agnostic,” that is, they don’t prefer any kind of treatment over another. Patients can be assured they will get the best treatment for their particular need.

A vascular specialist builds relationships with patients.

A vascular medicine specialist may be someone who treats you on an ongoing basis for decades and very often has long-term relationships with patients because vascular disease can be a long-term condition. If you have vascular disease, you can trust a vascular medicine specialist to care about your long term health and to consider all your options.

Vascular medicine specialists manage veins and arteries in every part of the body except the heart.

For example, vascular medicine specialist can help manage blocked carotid arteries in the neck. They treat the problems of the aorta (a large main artery) after it leaves the heart and enters the abdomen. Peripheral vascular disease, which often affects the arteries in the legs and feet, also is treated by a vascular medicine specialists.

How do I know I need to see a vascular medicine specialist?

Typically, patients are referred to a Vascular Medicine specialist by their primary care physician or by another specialist. Sometimes patients become acquainted with a vascular medicine specialist after an unexpected event lands them in the hospital. You might be referred to a vascular medicine specialist if you see your regular doctor for pain in your legs, and learn that you have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), for example. If you are in a high PAD risk category: are age is 65 or above, a smoker, diabetic, and/or have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, you may want to consider PAD screening test.