What is endovascular surgery?
Endovascular surgery treats conditions affecting your blood vessels (vascular system) without making large incisions. Surgeons repair these vessels and remove blood clots to restore blood flow and prevent damage to your brain, heart, limbs and lungs.
What is the difference between endovascular and open vascular surgery?
Both endovascular surgery and open vascular surgery are procedures to access and repair blood vessels damaged by
or injury. The difference is in how the surgeon accesses the blood vessels.
Endovascular surgery, or an endovascular procedure, uses a minimally invasive approach. Surgeons make punctures into the artery with a needle and then thread small flexible tubes called catheters through the blood vessels to reach the damaged area. The lack of an incision results in less blood loss and faster recovery.
In open (traditional) vascular surgery, surgeons make incisions to reach the blood vessels.
What conditions do healthcare providers treat with endovascular surgery?
Healthcare providers use endovascular procedures to treat many conditions involving
and heart vessels. These conditions include:
Aneurysm: A bulging or weak area forms in a blood vessel. Aneurysms can happen in the
(abdominal aortic aneurysm and thoracic aortic aneurysm) and in other blood vessels in your body.
Atherosclerosis: Plaque builds up in your arteries.
keeps your blood from flowing as it should.
Carotid artery disease: This narrowing of the
happens when plaque builds up. Carotid artery disease raises your risk of stroke.
Deep vein thrombosis: Blood clots form in veins deep inside your body.
can cause complications when clots break off and travel through your bloodstream.
Peripheral artery disease: Blockages form in the limbs, often the legs.
can cause poor circulation.
How common is vascular disease?
Between eight and 12 million Americans have peripheral artery disease. Healthcare providers diagnose almost 200,000 Americans with abdominal aortic aneurysms each year. Vascular disease also contributes to heart attack and stroke.