Vascular surgery is surgery to treat disorders and diseases of the vascular system. A vascular surgeon performs surgery on patients with diseases, disorders, or inflammation of the veins and arteries. These diseases of the blood vessels can include vasculitis, aneurysms, ischemia, thrombosis, varicose veins, and immune system abnormalities.

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are vascular problems, varicose veins, deep vein thrombosis (dvt), peripheral arterial disease, pulmonary embolism, retinopathy, renal artery disease, mesenteric ischemia, venous disease, stasis dermatitis, carotid artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, varicosities, arteriosclerosis of the extremities, carotid endarterectomies, chronic limb ischemia, arterial and femoral endarterectomies, acute limb ischemia, abdominal aortic aneurysms, and arterial diseases.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including vascular surgery, arterial surgery, venous surgery, and deep vein surgery.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including electrocardiogram (ecg or ekg), echocardiogram, angiography, photoplethysmography (ppg), transcranial doppler (tcd), doppler ultrasound, duplex scan, doppler arterial exams, noninvasive lab testing, inferior vena cava scan, vein mapping, duplex ultrasound scan, exercise testing for claudication, and artery mapping.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 3,778 practicing vascular surgeons. Broken out by state, vascular surgery doctor density in Alabama is 45, in Arizona is 60, in Arkansas is 24, in California is 407, in Colorado is 44, in Connecticut is 58, in Delaware is 14, in District of Columbia is 18, in Florida is 277, in Georgia is 116, in Hawaii is 18, in Idaho is 10, in Illinois is 139, in Indiana is 63, in Iowa is 41, in Kansas is 27, in Kentucky is 65, in Louisiana is 58, in Maine is 16, in Maryland is 95, in Massachusetts is 147, in Michigan is 152, in Minnesota is 56, in Mississippi is 20, in Missouri is 82, in Montana is 6, in Nebraska is 22, in Nevada is 16, in New Hampshire is 29, in New Jersey is 149, in New Mexico is 24, in New York is 310, in North Carolina is 101, in North Dakota is 3, in Ohio is 193, in Oklahoma is 22, in Oregon is 47, in Pennsylvania is 202, in Rhode Island is 6, in South Carolina is 61, in South Dakota is 8, in Tennessee is 105, in Texas is 236, in Utah is 21, in Vermont is 8, in Virginia is 99, in Washington is 88, in West Virginia is 33, in Wisconsin is 72, and in Wyoming is 4.