Treating Your Vascular Health Conditions

In November, vascular surgeon Emily Reardon, MD, began seeing patients at Valley Health’s Front Royal Family Practice and Multispecialty Clinic at Warren Memorial Hospital, providing care for “conditions involving all the blood vessels in the body except those in the brain and heart,” Dr. Reardon explains.

Dr. Reardon will see patients in the office as well as perform outpatient procedures including peripheral angiograms, venous ablations and varicose vein phlebectomies.

“Vascular health conditions present with a broad range of symptoms,” Dr. Reardon says. “It’s about improving one’s quality of life and, for many, reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke and limb-threatening ischemia.”

Vascular issues affect everything from the limbs to the abdomen to the neck. One such condition is peripheral arterial disease, or PAD, which refers to a blockage of blood flow in the lower extremities that raises the risk for limb amputation. As the most prevalent vascular condition, PAD affects 10 million people in the United States. It is often diagnosed by primary care physicians whose patients experience leg pain when walking, wounds that won’t heal and/or decreased pulses in the feet.

Surgical treatment for PAD has come a long way in the past 10 years. Many procedures are minimally invasive, or termed “endovascular.” Similar to heart catheterizations, endovascular procedures are performed using wires, balloons and stents. These procedures involve a small incision at an IV site and typically require only a half day in the hospital.

Carotid stenosis, or narrowing of the blood vessels in the neck, is another area of concern for vascular surgeons. The condition is implicated in one-third of all 700,000 strokes in the U.S. each year. Surgical treatment of the stenosis can help prevent stroke. When a blockage is discovered, a vascular surgeon can remove the plaque or place a stent in the clogged artery to restore efficient blood flow.

Vascular disease can affect the venous system too, causing varicose vein swelling and/or venous skin changes in the legs. Dr. Reardon also treats these conditions using minimally invasive techniques.

“Many vascular diseases are chronic in nature, so I will see many patients throughout their lives, for surgery or routine surveillance,” she says. “I strive to be a good listener, to be thoughtful and to understand what matters most to patients.”

In addition to her vascular surgery clinic, Dr. Reardon continues to perform procedures at Winchester Medical Center, which remains home to the most complex varieties of vascular surgery, including those used to treat aortic aneurysms. For the past six years, the vascular surgery team at Winchester Medical Center has received three stars, the highest score possible, from the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Vascular Quality Initiative.

To learn more, visit valleyhealthlink.com/reardon.