Description

Vascular surgery is a surgical subspecialty in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries, veins and lymphatic circulation, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures, and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolved from general and cardiac surgery as well as minimally invasive techniques pioneered by interventional radiology. The vascular surgeon is trained in the diagnosis and management of diseases affecting all parts of the vascular system except those of the heart and brain. Cardiothoracic surgeons and interventional cardiologists treat diseases of the heart vessels. Vascular surgeons treat extracranial cerebrovascular disease while Neurosurgeons and interventional neuroradiologists treat diseases of the vessels in the brain. Early leaders of the field included Russian surgeon Nikolai Korotkov, noted for developing early surgical techniques, American interventional radiologist Charles Theodore Dotter who is credited with inventing minimally invasive angioplasty, and Australian Robert Paton, who helped the field achieve recognition as a specialty. Edwin Wylie of San Francisco was one of the early American pioneers who developed and fostered advanced training in vascular surgery and pushed for its recognition as a specialty in the United States in the 1970s.