Endovascular Care

Advances in diagnosing and treating diseases of the circulatory or vascular system have significantly improved the health and quality of life of those who have been diagnosed with vascular disorders. However, many people don’t know they have vascular problems until they experience leg pain or other symptoms, or attend one of Tanner’s peripheral artery disease (PAD) screenings.

Endovascular simply means "in the vascular" system. Oxygenated blood is supplied to your body through an intricate network of blood vessels. These include arteries, which carry oxygenated blood to different parts of the body, and veins, which return oxygen-depleted blood to the heart and lungs as part of the vascular system. Problems can occur with the blood flow in this elaborate system of vessels, requiring specialized medical care.

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Endovascular also refers to any surgical procedure in which a catheter containing medications or miniature instruments is inserted percutaneously into a blood vessel for the treatment of vascular disease. This allows physicians to treat vascular disorders from inside the blood vessels. Although traditional open surgical methods are also used, most of today's endovascular procedures are minimally invasive— performed through a small puncture wound or incision—requiring less recuperation time.

Choose Tanner for these endovascular procedures:

• Non-invasive vascular tests
• Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair
• Treatment for leg pain and peripheral vascular disease (PVD; also known as PAD)
• Blood clots
• Vascular surgery
• And more

The endovascular services available at Tanner include:

• Medicine therapies
• Minimally-invasive diagnostic imaging procedures
  These include angiogram, arteriogram and angiography, which can help detect vascular issues. A catheter is entered through the femoral artery, located in the inner fold of the upper leg/groin and guided into a specific artery. The doctor then injects dye to visualize any blockage or an aneurysm (weakening and bulging of the artery wall).
• Minimally-invasive interventional surgeries
  
  These surgeries include:

• Peripheral and renal angioplasty - A balloon on the tip of the catheter is inflated at a blocked site to open the lumen or middle of the artery.
• Stent - A wire mesh is inserted over the balloon and when the balloon is inflated the stent holds the artery open.
• Rotoblader - A small diamond-tipped drill on the end of the catheter vaporizes the blockage.
• Venous surgery
• Sclerotherapy - This procedure involves the injection of a concentrated saline or specially-developed solution into the spider or varicose vein. The solution then hardens, causing the vein to close up or collapse. Healthier blood vessels located nearby absorb the blood flow of the collapsed vein.
• Endovascular aneurysm repair
• Surgery for dialysis access
• Thoracic endograft repair

Tanner Heart and Vascular Center
705 Dixie Street, Carrollton, GA 30117
Located inside Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton
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Main Phone: 770.836.9666

Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica
601 Dallas Highway, Villa Rica, GA 30180
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Main Phone: 770.456.3000

• To schedule an appointment for a procedure or test at the Tanner Heart and Vascular Center at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton or the endovascular lab at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica, have a physician’s order ready and call Tanner Central Scheduling at 770.836.9721.
• If you need a cardiologist, call Tanner’s physician referral hotline at 770.214.CARE or choose Find a Doctor to search Tanner's medical staff.

For information on cardiac services at each hospital, call:

Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton: 770.836.9559

Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica: 770.456.3169

Higgins General Hospital: 770.824.2201

Tanner Health System takes pride in providing our community with quality health care. We also believe in transparency when it comes to our quality measures.

The following Tanner quality measures are available online:

• Core Measures for heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care
• Patient Safety for infection prevention, medicine errors and patient falls
• Patient Satisfaction for ambulatory surgery, emergency room, inpatient and outpatient
• Cardiac Care for door-to-EKG time, aspirin given at arrival, door-to-balloon time and successful stent procedures

Learn more about how Tanner compares locally and nationally.