Vascular Medicine

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Vascular medicine focuses on conditions and diseases that affect arteries and veins and impair blood flow. Vascular disease can contribute to coronary artery disease (heart attack) and stroke, two of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. ShorePoint Health Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda offers a range of services for prevention and treatment of vascular diseases. Vascular specialists provide care for conditions such as:

• Aortic aneurysms
• Atherosclerosis
• Buerger's disease
• Carotid artery disease (CAD)
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)
• Peripheral vascular disease (PAD)
• Pulmonary embolism (PE)
• Varicose veins

What Is Vascular Disease?

Vascular disease is fairly common and results from the degeneration of normal arteries and veins. It happens as you age, and can be made worse by certain factors that damage blood vessels. Treatments aimed at reducing vascular damage can slow down and sometimes reverse vascular disease, giving the body a chance to heal itself. When that doesn’t happen, surgery may be required.

Vascular conditions can be divided into diseases of the arteries (arterial) and diseases of the veins (venous).

Common Arterial Conditions

• Aortic aneurysms – A bulging or ballooning of a blood vessel that is more than 150% of the vessel’s normal size, occurring because of damage to the artery wall.
• Atherosclerosis – A buildup of cholesterol and calcium resulting in plaque that can block an artery and lead to a heart attack or stroke.
• Carotid artery disease – This is atherosclerosis of the main artery leading from the brain, where buildup can lead to a stroke.
• Critical limb ischemia (CLI) – This happens when the degree of blockage from PAD becomes severe, causing pain in the foot and especially the toes.
• Peripheral artery disease (PAD) – This is also a type of atherosclerosis and involves the blood vessels supply circulation to the legs. It’s a disease with risk factors that increase with age, and especially prevalent in patients who have had a heart attack, stroke or previous vascular surgery.

Common Vascular Conditions

• Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) – This condition develops when veins can no longer return blood to the heart because of clots or because there are valves that are no longer working.
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) – A blood clot that forms inside a vein that’s deep inside the body, and usually occurs in the lower leg or thigh, though can also occur else.
• Pelvic venous congestion syndrome (PCS) – This is caused by the veins that drain the pelvis not working correctly. It is most common in women of childbearing age and generally goes away after menopause.
• Spider veins – These are located just below the skin’s surface and may be related to estrogen levels.
• Varicose veins – These are dilated superficial veins in the legs that happen because of damage to the vein valves and increased pressure from standing too long, or from family history.

Common Procedures

Common procedures performed include:

• Abdominal aneurysm surgery
• Abdominal aneurysm endovascular stent grafting
• Aortic aneurysm endografts
• Carotid artery aneurysm surgery
• Carotid artery endarterectomy
• Bypass surgery for atherosclerosis PAD and PVD
• Bypass surgery for venous disease
• Endovascular treatment of lower extremity arterial blockages with stenting, laser, atherectomy, drug-coated balloons
• Endovascular treatment of iliac venous occlusive disease by stenting and intravascular ultrasound
• Endovenous vein ablation for varicose veins
• Vena cava filters for venous disease treatment