Vascular Treatments

There are different arms to peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Peripheral vascular disease includes arterial, venous, lymphatic and other vascular conditions.

At Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center, our vascular specialists see a lot of patients who have problems with their legs. Patients have come from all over the world for treatment of PVD states.

Problems due to blocked arteries can result in cramping in the legs (claudication) to the possibility of losing a limb (critical ischemia).

Types of diseases that we treat:

Arterial

Venous

 Lymphatic

Other

  • Vasospastic diseases: Raynauds
  • Non-atherosclerotic causes of ischemia: Buerger’s disease
  • Hypercoaguable conditions
  • Premature atherosclerosis
  • Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
  • Vasculitis
  • Anticoagulation issues(e.g. Coumadin failure/resistance)

Wound Care

The Aurora St. Luke’s Vascular Services program also treats patients with more severe peripheral artery disease ailments like nonhealing ischemic wounds (e.g., ulcers on the feet).

Patients suffering from very poor circulation in the leg or critical ischemia, could lose a limb if a more invasive treatment option is not explored.

Patients diagnosed with a nonhealing wound by one of our vascular specialists are referred to our Wound Care program. The patient then is directed to the best care available—either vascular surgery by a board-certified vascular surgeon or an intervention by a specialist with vast experience—to open or bypass the blocked artery.

Follow-up in a patient treated for a nonhealing wound is key. Our Vascular Services program offers follow-up services to ensure the patient fully recovers.

Peripheral Vascular Disease Management

A vascular specialist can offer a comprehensive management program for vascular disease including medication management, exercise and monitoring of any deterioration of the disease. The management programs follow national guidelines in the management of PVD. The vascular specialist is a “gatekeeper” to ensure that all treatment options are offered to our patients. This multidisciplinary approach to management of PVD is what contributes to our overall experience and high-quality outcomes.

Peripheral arterial disease can be treated by a peripheral angioplasty (opening the blocked artery with a balloon catheter and possibly putting in a stent to hold the artery open if appropriate).

Sometimes surgery is necessary to create a bypass to improve the blood flow where there is a blockage.

The treatment options are reviewed by a panel of experts to determine the best treatment option for each individual.

Aneurysms

Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center is a leader in the treatment of aortic or thoracic aneurysms (ballooning of an artery).

An aneurysm is challenging because of the risk for rupture. However, most patients with an aneurysm often aren’t in any pain. The aneurysm is usually found incidentally, like when an ultrasound or CT scan is performed for another ailment.

Aneurysm affects older people, mostly older than age 60. It is present in 2 percent of the population and is responsible for more than 13,750 deaths per year in the United States.

After rupture, only 25 percent of those affected reach the emergency department alive, and only 10 percent make it to the operating room alive. Once an aneurysm ruptures, your risk of death is very high. It’s important to diagnose an aneurysm early and treat it electively as opposed to treating it in an emergency situation.

Our Vascular Services program will help the patient decide the best treatment option—either surgery or endovascular repair, which is a less invasive approach using stent grafts.

The stent option usually calls for a two-day hospital stay with a short recovery time of about a week. This option typically causes little pain and access is gained through small incisions in the groin area. A surgery may result in a 1-week to 10-day hospital stay with months to possibly a year of recovery time.

Aurora St. Luke’s is expanding its Vascular Services program because of a research trial that will look at more complicated aneurysms that involve the renal arteries. Patients who would not be candidates for stent graft would go straight to surgery, but we are going to have a less invasive option for those patients.

Carotid Disease

Carotid disease is a hardening of the carotid arteries, typically occurring when cholesterol and plaque build up in the arteries in your neck that supply blood to your brain. A number of risk factors can contribute to your chance of developing carotid disease, like a family history of heart disease, age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.

While a person may not have any symptoms, if one of the carotid arteries becomes blocked, or if a piece of the plaque breaks off and blocks the flow of blood, the risk of a stroke increases dramatically. Warning signs that you are at risk for a stroke include blurred vision, weakness or numbness in your arms, legs or face, slurred speech, dizziness or trouble talking. If you experience any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately.

Carotid disease can be diagnosed by a physician listening to the arteries in your neck with a stethoscope. If a rushing sound is heard, you may have the disease. Buildup and blockages can also be found through several diagnostic tests, including:

  • Carotid ultrasound: a procedure using high-frequency waves to view blood vessels in the neck for blockage
  • Carotid angiography: an imaging procedure in which a catheter is inserted into a blood vessel, contrast dye is injected and X-ray movies of the arteries are taken

It is also important to let your physician know if you've experienced any of the stroke symptoms listed above.

The most common treatments for carotid disease include lifestyle modifications, medications or procedures such as:

  • Carotid stenting: a minimally invasive procedure in which a catheter is inserted through the groin into the carotid artery. A small balloon is inflated to open the artery, then a mesh tube, or stent, is put into place to keep the artery open
  • Carotid endarterectomy: a surgical treatment in which the carotid artery is opened and the plaque is removed, along with the diseased portion of the artery.

Venous Disease

The Aurora St. Luke’s world-renowned Vascular Services program offers a variety of ways to treat patients with venous disease.

Venous disease, like deep vein thrombosis, includes things like clots in the legs and varicose veins with symptoms like swelling and discomfort in the legs.

Our Vascular Services program can offer treatments that vary from conservative to more aggressive with catheters and clot-busting agents. 

Our specialists have a lot of experience because of the volume of patients we treat and are actively involved in research and well-published. 

Deep Vein Thrombosis

The most common venous disease our vascular services specialists encounter is deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a clot that forms deep in a vein and causes leg swelling and pain.

Patients with deep vein thrombosis carry the risk of the clot moving to the lungs and getting lodged in a main artery. Diagnosing DVT early and treating it effectively is very important to avoid death. 

DVT can be treated with anticoagulation medications (blood thinners), but that could lead to future complications as they do not eliminate the clot, but only prevent it from moving to the lungs. Our vascular services specialist can identify patients who may benefit from a more aggressive treatment, like the use of clot-busting agents.