Vascular Treatment Services

Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute’s vascular specialists treat disorders including aortic aneurysm, deep vein thrombosis and peripheral artery disease. Our vascular surgeons and staff treat problems in outlying or peripheral blood vessels with the same care as problems inside the heart, especially when those blood vessels are located in the abdomen, kidneys, legs, neck and brain. This “whole system” approach ensures that patients who require treatment for a vascular disease receive the right health care for their needs, history and symptoms. 

Before receiving any treatment services for a vascular disease, patients undergo a complete physical examination and meet with a vascular specialist to review their medical histories. Additional tests, such as blood work, non-invasive assessment of the arterial circulation, nutritional analysis and assessment of blood sugar control may be ordered to help the physician arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan. Our comprehensive approach to treating vascular disease saves valuable time and minimizes the risk that a patient’s condition may irreversibly worsen.

Our vascular services include:

• Medication
  • Antiplatelet therapy
  • Reduction in hypoglycemic medication
  • Statin management
• Endovascular options
  • Atherectomy
  • Balloon angioplasty
  • Cryoplasty
  • Peripheral arterial angioplasty
  • Stent placement
• Vascular surgery
  • Bypass surgery
  • Bypasses to small arteries in the feet
  • Distal bypass surgery
  • Microvascular reconstructive surgery

Vascular Surgery and Procedures

Atherosclerosis, the narrowing of an artery or arteries, can manifest in the heart or other places along the body's network of veins and arteries and affects the entire circulatory system, leading to heart attack, aneurysm, high blood pressure, stroke, severe leg pain or even kidney failure. Problems in one area of the body can indicate a more serious condition elsewhere in the body.

Our vascular surgeons perform vascular procedures in state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization labs, using innovative equipment such as interoperative ultrasound to treat symptoms with angioplasty and stenting. During angioplasty, a balloon-type catheter is threaded into a vein and expanded to compress plaque and improve blood flow. With stenting, a tiny wire-mesh coil is placed into the vein to keep it open. Vascular surgeons often put endovascular graft stents into blood vessels, instead of operating on major arteries. Stents also improve blood flow after an aortic aneurysm.
 

Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP)

Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP), offered at Overlook Medical Center, is a seven-week outpatient therapeutic program that can reduce the symptoms of angina and enhance quality of life.

In EECP therapy, a patient's legs are wrapped with compressive cuffs, which are connected to a computer and inflated and deflated according to the patient's cardiac cycle via computer-interpreted ECG signals. All treatments are done by an expert team of nurses and technicians. The beneficial effects of EECP appear to be sustained between treatments, and may persist long after completion of a course of therapy. Patients must be prescribed EECP by their physicians.