The Heart & Vascular Institute’s Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery offers comprehensive care of your circulatory system by an expert team of fellowship-trained vascular surgeons who can help you get the answers and treatment you need.
What is Vascular Disease?
Vascular disease affects your body’s blood vessels, which include arteries that carry oxygen-rich blood to your tissues and organs, veins that carry blood and waste product to your heart and capillaries that connect small arteries to small veins.
Peripheral artery disease, caused by narrowed arteries that reduce blood flow to the limbs, is a common type of vascular disease that affects about 8.5 million people in the United State -- up to 20 percent of them older than age 60.
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What Does a Vascular Surgeon Do?
Vascular and endovascular surgeons treat problems with the network of arteries and veins that travel all over your body – the circulatory system. As people age, their arteries can become weakened or blocked. This can lead to a range of problems, from aortic aneurysm to varicose veins.
A vascular surgeon is the only circulatory system specialist who can offer you the complete range of treatment options for vascular disease. This includes diagnostic tools such as noninvasive imaging, medical management of chronic conditions, minimally invasive endovascular therapies and complex open surgical procedures. By choosing a vascular surgeon, you’ll have every option you need for comprehensive care.
“Our division performs more than 2,000 procedures a year for patients with a variety of vascular diseases,” says Dr. Tom Divinagracia, the system chief. “We work closely with other specialists including cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, vascular neurologists and others, all with the commitment to provide state-of-the art individualized care to every patient we see.”
Vascular Conditions We Treat
Hartford HealthCare’s team of vascular and endovascular surgeons provide high-quality care of your veins and arteries. Here are some of the diseases we treat:
Our High Volume Complex Treatment Centers:
Vascular & Endovascular Procedures
Whether you need a diagnostic study, minimally invasive procedure, or major surgery, rest assured that our division is here to offer the region’s most advanced options.
- Aneurysm Repair: We perform both open aneurysm as well as minimally invasive endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR). Look to our Aortic Center for cutting-edge clinical trials and complex options for repair.
- Carotid Endarterectomy (CEA): Removes plaque from the artery that carries blood to your brain to help prevent a stroke.
- Angioplasty: Opens up blocked arteries with the help of a balloon to improve blood flow.
- Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR): Uses a special device to place a stent and open the artery that carries blood to your brain. TCAR offers superior stroke reduction benefit than traditional carotid stents, with a faster recovery than open carotid endarterectomy. We are proud to be recognized as a TCAR Center of Excellence.
- Arterial Bypass: Redirects blood flow around a blocked area using your body’s own tissue or a prosthetic graft.
- Varicose Veins: Uses a special catheter to seal abnormal veins in your legs and remove painful varicose veins that interfere with your day-to-day life. These procedures can be performed in our offices, with you in and out in under three hours.