Is vascular surgery high risk?

Like all surgeries, vascular surgery does pose some risk of complications, which increases if the patient smokes, is obese and has other serious chronic diseases such as heart problems and kidney failure. Endovascular surgery or pinhole surgery is generally associated with lower risk and downtime because of its minimally invasive nature. There is additional risk when the vascular surgeon operates in the chest or on a major blood vessel such as the abdominal aorta. Operations on veins usually have no downtime and do not carry generally any major risk.