Your Vascular System
The vascular system is the body’s network of blood vessels. It includes the arteries, veins and capillaries that carry blood to and from the heart. Problems of the vascular system are common and can be serious. Arteries can become thick and stiff, a problem called atherosclerosis . Blood clots can clog vessels and block blood flow to the heart or brain. Weakened blood vessels can burst, causing bleeding inside the body.
WHAT DOES A VASCULAR SURGEON DO
Your Vascular Surgeon prescribes medication or therapy, order non-invasive diagnostic testing and perform a variety of diagnostic and surgical procedures. While traditional vascular surgery usually focused on the treatment conditions such as aneurysms and embolisms, current vascular surgery includes many endovascular procedures. Endovascular procedures generally involve the placement of catheters or stents to maintain open arteries or veins.
WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF ARTERIES AND VEINS
Arteries, veins, and capillaries are in fact all forms of blood vessels, just with different shapes and roles in the body. Blood vessels are an integral part of the circulatory system, which transfers oxygen and important components of life around the body and removes waste. Each of the three major types of blood vessels plays their own role in this complex system, helping to keep a human body function at full strength and health.
THE ARTERIES
- Are those blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. This means that, with only two exceptions, arteries are carrying highly oxygenated blood to transport oxygen to the tissue of the body. Arteries are the higher-pressure part of the circulatory system, as they are getting blood from the heart. The pressure in the arteries differs between when the heart contracts and when it expands, the systolic and diastolic pressure, respectively. It is this pressure shift that can be felt as a pulse. The largest artery in the body is the aorta, in the heart. The aorta receives blood from the heart’s left ventricle, and then branches off into smaller and smaller arteries, eventually turning into arterioles, which supply the capillaries with blood. Pulmonary arteries are another special type of artery, which carry deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs, when they can be replenished, disposing of their carbon monoxide and gathering oxygen.
THE VEINS
- Are those blood vessels that carry blood back to the heart, with a few minor exceptions. For the most part, veins are carrying deoxygenated blood back to the heart, although this is not the case in either pulmonary or umbilical veins, where they carry oxygenated blood. Veins are basically tubes that just collapse when not filled with blood. Within veins are flaps that keep the blood flowing towards the heart, rather than being pulled down and pooling by the effects of gravity. The blood carried by veins, in addition to having little oxygen, is also filled with carbon dioxide and various forms of cellular waste. Blood moves through the veins back to the heart, where it enters in the right ventricle, where it is then pumped into the lungs by the pulmonary artery, and then back through the heart via the left atrium.