What is vascular surgery?

Vascular surgery is an emerging surgical specialty. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, with the change of people’s dietary structure and living habits, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases began to rise and exceeded that of infectious diseases, so the vascular pathology with drug treatment as the main means came into being. With the further understanding of such diseases and the development of surgical techniques, many vascular diseases began to receive surgical management with good results. Thus, angiology and surgery began to intermingle to form “vascular surgery”. If vascular medicine in a broad sense includes vascular surgery and endovascular medicine, then vascular surgery has gradually begun to replace endovascular medicine as a major force in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Vascular surgeons are specialists in the treatment of systemic vascular disease. It can be assumed that vascular problems in any part of the body, except for intracranial vascular disease and procedures requiring extracorporeal circulation machine support, fall within the scope of the vascular surgeon. These include: atheromatous lesions atherosclerotic lesions of the peripheral vessels venous disease lymphatic dysfunction Although called “vascular surgery”, 80% of the patients seen in the vascular surgery clinic do not require surgery, but rather receive medication or close follow-up. Vascular surgeons provide the most comprehensive vascular protection and treatment measures. First, the vascular surgeon can use and interpret a combination of “non-invasive vascular tests” that may include color ultrasound Doppler, physical arteriovenous assessment (segmental manometry or volumetrics), CT or MRI vascular imaging techniques, etc. to provide information for the diagnosis of vascular disease. Coordinating the patient’s primary vascular protection measures in collaboration with the internist is the primary task of the vascular surgeon until the patient’s condition reaches a point where surgical management is required. Ultimately, the vascular surgeon can select a range of treatments and develop a comprehensive treatment plan for patients who have reached a certain level of disease. These options include, first and foremost, pharmacological treatment of the arterial and lymphatic systems, as well as arterial and venous reconstructive surgery using classic open surgical techniques; while modern vascular surgeons are also well versed in the use of minimally invasive endovascular interventions including balloon dilation or vascular stenting for obstructed arteries; or the use of endoluminal stent-type prosthetic vessels for the repair of aortic disease in the thorax or abdomen and the use of stents or open procedures to treat carotid artery disease. Vascular surgeons are the only group of physicians specializing in vascular disease who have mastered all of these diagnostic techniques, drug therapy, open surgery, and minimally invasive endoluminal interventions simultaneously. Their advantage is that they can choose different treatment options according to the individual patient and the extent of the lesion, often even using open surgery and endoluminal surgery together to find the best balance between efficacy and trauma. In addition, unlike some surgical procedures, vascular surgery has its own necessity, but it must be recognized that its efficacy is also time-sensitive, which is at least an unavoidable bottleneck of modern medicine. Understanding the natural course and surgical regression of vascular disease, it is necessary for vascular surgeons to provide long-term follow-up work to patients with vascular disease and to offer patients the option of multiple procedures when necessary. In fact, vascular surgeons have the ability to prognosticate long-term outcomes before offering patients their first procedure and use this as an important reference in their patients’ lifelong treatment plans. This is why all patients with vascular disease should remain in close contact with his/her vascular surgeon. Vascular surgery is not only emerging, but also growing rapidly. The technique of vascular anastomosis was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1912, and after half a century of development, it has finally become a routine technique in surgery. The next 10-20 years were a period of growth and development for open vascular surgery techniques, but at the same time the more minimally invasive endovascular techniques quietly emerged. In the 1990s, the vascular surgery community began to retrain in this area. Eventually, endovascular techniques began to become a routine part of vascular surgery. Today, many international and national vascular surgery centers are adopting the less invasive endoluminal treatment as a standard procedure. From prevention of cerebrovascular embolism, to improvement of lower extremity ischemia, to treatment of fatal active aneurysms, endoluminal techniques have been involved in a variety of conditions in the field of vascular surgery. Vascular surgery is the specialist in varicose veins and lower limb swelling of vascular origin; in hemodialysis treatment, which saves patients’ lives, vascular surgery provides access to dialysis; in limb ischemia due to atherosclerosis, vascular surgery is the only specialty that offers all modern medical measures; in trauma and tumors that invade blood vessels, other surgical specialties need the help of vascular surgeons; in the treatment of the “human time bomb” called Aortic aneurysms and aortic coarctation, known as “human time bombs”, vascular surgeons are certainly the first choice for the treatment of such diseases ….. Today, vascular surgeons are pioneers of new technologies and vascular surgery is no longer limited to surgical procedures. Vascular surgery has a full range of solutions and strategies for the treatment of vascular disease, and is fully responsive to the treatment needs of different individuals.