Endovascular surgery, or an endovascular procedure, uses a minimally invasive approach to treat diseased blood vessels in the body either in the arterial or the venous system. Surgeons make punctures into the artery or vein with a needle and then thread small flexible tubes called catheters through the blood vessels to reach the damaged area. The lack of a big incision results in less blood loss and faster recovery and less risk to the patient.
Endovascular surgery is performed to treat conditions like abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is a swelling or “ballooning” of the blood vessel in the tummy. The surgery involves making a small incision near each hip to access the blood vessels. An endovascular graft, which is a special fabric tube device framed with stainless steel self-expanding stents, is inserted through the arteries in a catheter, a long, narrow flexible tube, and positioned inside the aorta. Once in place, the graft expands and seals off the aneurysm, preventing blood from flowing into the aneurysm. The graft remains in the aorta permanently. Varicose vein treatment modalities are all now mostly endovascular-based. Examples include laser, RFA and microwave endovenous ablation.
