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 4,314 practicing vascular surgeons. Broken out by state, vascular surgery doctor density in Alabama is 67, in Alaska is 3, in Arizona is 73, in Arkansas is 28, in California is 488, in Colorado is 39, in Connecticut is 65, in Delaware is 17, in District of Columbia is 30, in Florida is 285, in Georgia is 126, in Hawaii is 16, in Idaho is 14, in Illinois is 156, in Indiana is 92, in Iowa is 44, in Kansas is 28, in Kentucky is 91, in Louisiana is 61, in Maine is 25, in Maryland is 113, in Massachusetts is 168, in Michigan is 171, in Minnesota is 62, in Mississippi is 25, in Missouri is 97, in Montana is 11, in Nebraska is 28, in Nevada is 24, in New Hampshire is 36, in New Jersey is 160, in New Mexico is 25, in New York is 342, in North Carolina is 138, in North Dakota is 11, in Ohio is 219, in Oklahoma is 33, in Oregon is 68, in Pennsylvania is 217, in Rhode Island is 13, in South Carolina is 65, in South Dakota is 8, in Tennessee is 105, in Texas is 267, in Utah is 25, in Vermont is 7, in Virginia is 115, in Washington is 85, in West Virginia is 47, in Wisconsin is 83, and in Wyoming is 5.