I bet you have a family member or know someone who has had a stroke, a blood clot, an aneurysm, or maybe even gangrene of a toe. What happened to that person? Who took care of him or her?

I am willing to bet somewhere along the line, it was a vascular surgeon. But what is a vascular surgeon?

Whenever I mention to someone that I am a vascular surgeon, the response is almost always the same: "So you're the guy who takes care of veins, right?" That's a little like saying that Michael Phelps does a little swimming. There is so much more!

A vascular surgeon does indeed take care of veins, but it is typically...