Surgery or a procedure is sometimes needed to treat peripheral artery disease
(PAD), a common condition in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow
to the arms or legs. It’s usually a sign of a buildup of fatty deposits
in the arteries, a condition called atherosclerosis, that can be corrected with:
Vascular angioplasty If a narrowed artery is causing PAD leg pain, this
treatment may help. A tiny balloon on a tube, called a catheter, is placed
in the artery. The balloon inflates, which makes the artery wider. This
improves blood flow. A small wire mesh tube, called a stent, may be placed
in the artery to keep the artery open.
Leg artery bypass surgery This surgery creates a new path for blood to
flow around a blocked or partially blocked artery in the leg. A surgeon
takes a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body. The vessel
is connected below the blocked artery. The new pathway improves blood
flow to the muscle.
While your arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from your heart, your
veins bring oxygen-poor blood back to your heart. It’s a huge task
considering the veins must fight gravity to move blood back up to the
heart. But when there is a vein blockage or vein valve malfunction, blood
flow is reduced significantly causing venous insufficiency. Blood pools
in the legs, increasing pressure in your leg veins and causing pain, swelling,
skin discoloration, ulcers, or clots.
Leg vein ablation This is a minimally invasive procedure used to treat
chronic venous insufficiency and varicose veins, utilizing techniques
like laser or radiofrequency energy to seal off affected veins. Ablation
techniques include laser energy to heat and seal the affected vein via
a catheter inserted in the vein or radiofrequency waves that generate
heat and collapse the diseased vein.
Leg vein bypass surgery This surgery creates a new path for blood to flow
around a blocked or partially blocked vein in the leg. A surgeon takes
a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body. The vessel is connected
below the blocked vein. The new pathway improves blood flow back to the heart.
Abdominal aortic repair is a surgical procedure to treat an abdominal aortic
aneurysm which involves either open surgery or endovascular repair to
prevent rupture and associated complications. A thoracic and abdominal
aortic aneurysm is a bulging in the aorta that extends from the chest
to the abdomen. These complex aneurysms are the result of atherosclerosis
which is a hardening of the arteries caused by plaque buildup. Over time,
this plaque can cause the walls of the aorta to become stiff and weak,
creating the potential for an aneurysm to form.
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