Medical services

General surgery, vascular surgery

Nowadays general surgery means operation of abdominal organs, thyroid and parathyroid gland, the soft tissues of limbs and certain skin lesions.

Vascular surgery pays attention to the diseases of cervical, abdominal and limb veins including vasoconstriction, vasodilatation and varicose veins.

Laymen and patients often do not know the exact meaning of vascular surgery. It is often confused with cardiac surgery or people think it is only focus on the problems of varicose veins.

Vascular surgery cures the diseases of arteries and veins.

• The most common disease of the arteries is arteriosclerosis. We abolish the strictures or obstruction of arteries which cause critical insufficiency of circulation. The main methods are: bypass for treating longer and desobliteration for shorter obstructions. In both cases one condition is needed: the artery must be obstructed segmentally, the artery under and over the obstructed part need to be relatively intact. In the bypass method the obstructed part is not removed, we make a new, by-passing circulation instead. In case of desobliteration we remove the obstacle.
• The most common disease of the veins is varicose vein. It is important to there not be any trace of the operation because it is often made for aesthetic reasons. That is why we remove dilated veins through 1-2 mm size incisions, so there will not be any scab after the operation. Another frequent disease is deep vein thrombosis which is treated by anticoagulant medicine (Heparin), it is operated only in rare and serious cases.

Prevention:

1. You should not smoke because smoking do harm in more ways.
   - nicotine stimulate the sympathetic nerve which narrows veins, that leads to constant contraction of vein walls
   - the smoke causes oedematous inflammation of the endothelium which cause more stricture
   - the inflammation launches immunologic processes which develop plaque
   - the CO₂ increases the coagulation capacity
   - the smoke decreases the fibrinolytic (clot dissolving) activity of blood
   These effects accelerate the obstruction of narrowed veins and the veins of smokers are obstructed again more often than non-smokers’
2. Frequent (monthly) control of blood pressure and periodic (annual) laboratory test is advised even if you do not have high blood pressure or level of cholesterol.
3. Patients suffering from hypertension over 50 years should go ultrasound screening of cervical veins annually
4. Regular walking is also important