What is Endovascular Surgery?
Endovascular simply means "in the vascular" system. The surgery is minimally invasive, involves little down time, a faster recovery, and minimizes post-operative care. Endovascular procedures may be:

• Diagnostic -A catheter is entered through the femoral artery (in the inner fold of the upper leg/groin) and guided into a specific artery. The doctor then injects dye to visualize any blockage or an aneurysm.
• Interventional - treatment of a blockage or aneurysm. Treatment may be:
  • Angioplasty - a balloon on the tip of the catheter is inflated at a blocked site to open the lumen or middle of the artery
  • Stent - a wire mesh is inserted over the balloon and when the balloon is inflated the stent holds the artery open.
  • Rotoblader - a small diamond tip drill on the end of the catheter vaporizes the blockage.

What arteries do they diagnose or treat using endovascular procedures?
The endovascular technique for diagnosis and treatment is essentially the same for any artery. What varies are the size and properties of the artery. The arteries which are primarily of interest are:

• Coronary arteries - provide blood flow to the heart muscle.
• Iliac/femoral/popliteal arteries - provide blood flow to the legs.
• Subclavian arteries - provide blood flow to the arms.
• Carotid arteries - provide blood flow to the brain.

Endovascular Surgeries
Like endoscopic surgery endovascular surgery involves less invasive methods and smaller incisions causing less disruption of the patient's physiology processes.

With the aid of new technology an Endovascluar Surgeons uses a variety of devices including balloons, stents and a 1.5-millmeter microscopic camera called an angioscope to treat the affected blood vessel.

Endovascular Surgery is performed on patients with Peripheral Vascular Disease and is now being performed on patients with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm.

www.premiervascular.com
A Division of Premier Surgical Associates