Vascular surgeons manage veins and arteries in every part of the body except the brain and the heart. For example, vascular surgeons handle 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.

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

Symptoms of poor circulation are often easy to spot. They include muscle cramping, constant foot pain, and pain and throbbing in the arms and legs. As well as fatigue, varicose veins, and digestive issues. Leg cramps while walking and wounds that don’t seem to heal in your legs, feet, and toes are also symptoms.

One of our vein specialists will provide a physical examination and talk to you about your medical history, vein problem and goals. You may have testing such as duplex ultrasound in our Vascular Laboratory to show us the blood flow in your veins. You don’t need a physician referral to see us.

Exam time can vary greatly depending on what information needs to be gathered, and how easy or hard that information is to gather on any particular patient. Most vascular lab exams are scheduled for 60 minutes, and some of the most complicated exams can be scheduled for up to 120 minutes.

Vascular surgeons are doctors who treat diseases and problems within the vascular system, the network of arteries and veins that carry blood throughout the body.

Common Vascular Procedures and Treatments

• Angioplasty, Atherectomy and Stenting.
• Arteriovenous Fistula Creation for Dialysis Access.
• Carotid Endarterectomy.
• Carotid Stenting.
• Chronic/Non-healing Wound Management.
• Dialysis Access.
• Endarterectomy.
• Endovascular Stent Graft.

Vascular ultrasound is used to evaluate arteries or veins, including blood vessels in the neck, abdomen, arms and legs. It can be performed to: Detect clots in the vein (deep venous thrombosis, or DVT). Confirm chronic venous insufficiency, or leaky valves in the veins that may cause swelling or edema.

What is Vascular Ultrasound? Ultrasound is safe and painless. It produces pictures of the inside of the body using sound waves.

Vascular studies use high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) to measure the amount of blood flow in your blood vessels. A small handheld probe (transducer) is pressed against your skin. The sound waves move through your skin and other body tissues to the blood vessels. The sound waves echo off of the blood cells.

Here are a few helpful tips to improve circulation.

1. Get moving. One of the best things you can do to improve circulation is to exercise regularly.
2. Stop smoking. Smoking harms the walls of your arteries and causes plaque.
3. Healthy Diet.
4. Elevate legs.
5. Compression stockings.
6. Manage Blood Pressure.
7. See a Vascular Surgeon.

A new study by researchers at Indiana University published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that the impaired blood flow in leg arteries can actually be reversed by breaking up your sitting regimen with five-minute walking breaks.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) can lead to poor circulation in your legs. PAD is a circulatory condition that causes narrowing of the blood vessels and arteries. In an associated condition called atherosclerosis, arteries stiffen due to plaque buildup in the arteries and blood vessels.

People with peripheral artery disease (PAD) in the legs have blockages (plaques of atherosclerosis) in the arteries that impair the flow of blood. Based on large scientific studies involving over 5,000 people with PAD, authorities recommend taking a daily aspirin tablet.

Aspirin can help to lower the blood pressure of patients with mild to moderate high blood pressure. Aspirin only lowers your blood pressure if taken at night.

Claudication is a symptom of a narrowing or blockage of an artery. Typical symptoms of claudication include: Pain, a burning feeling, or a tired feeling in the legs and buttocks when you walk. Shiny, hairless, blotchy foot skin that may get sores.

Walking is especially good for you Several randomized clinical trials have shown that walking can make a real difference for people with peripheral artery disease, says Emile R. Mohler, III, MD, late Director of Vascular Medicine at Penn Medicine. “Any other exercise is fine.