Vascular Surgery

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The vascular surgeons at Emerson Hospital are board-certified experts in vascular surgery, a surgical specialty that focuses on conditions affecting the circulatory system — the veins and arteries — except those in the heart or brain.

Emerson’s vascular surgeons perform a range of procedures — both traditional open surgery as well as minimally invasive endovascular surgery — to treat vascular disease.

Endovascular means that surgery is performed inside a blood vessel using thin, flexible tubes called catheters. Because incisions are smaller, there is less pain and blood loss, hospital stays are shorter and recovery is quicker. Endovascular surgery is performed in Emerson’s state-of-the-art minimally invasive radiology suite.

The types of vascular surgery performed at Emerson

The vascular surgery procedures available at Emerson Hospital include:

Carotid endarterectomy

Open surgery to remove the buildup of plaque clogging one or both of the carotid arteries, the blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to the head, brain and face

Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR)

A minimally-invasive alternative to open surgery for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs)

Angioplasty and stenting for peripheral artery disease (PAD)

A minimally-invasive technique to widen blood vessels in the legs narrowed by plaque, and placement of a mesh tube (stent) in the narrowed area to keep it open and enable unobstructed blood flow

Bypass surgery for PAD

An open surgical procedure to treat femoral artery disease; it is performed to bypass the blocked portion of the main artery in the leg using a piece of another blood vessel to bypass the blockage. It is referred to as femoral popliteal (or Fem-Pop) bypass surgery.

Varicose vein surgery

There are several options for treating symptomatic varicose veins, including minimally invasive office-based ablation techniques and hospital-based endovenous laser treatment (EVLT)

Vena cava filter placement

This procedure is often performed to prevent a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung); the doctor uses a catheter to place a small filter in the large abdominal vein that returns blood to the heart from the lower part of your body (the inferior vena cava). The filter can trap blood clots and keep them from reaching the lungs.

Vascular access and AV fistula

A vascular access is a surgically created vein used to remove and return blood during hemodialysis (a process that removes wastes from the blood in people with kidney failure). An arteriovenous (AV) fistula is a connection, made by a vascular surgeon, of an artery to a vein.