Vascular Surgery FAQs

Vascular disease is any disease of the vascular system, which includes veins and arteries.

Your blood vessels (arteries carrying oxygen-rich blood and veins carrying blood back to the heart) are the roadways of your circulatory system. Without smoothly flowing blood, your body cannot function. Conditions such as the hardening of the arteries can create “traffic jams” in your circulatory system, obstructing the flow of blood to any part of the body. Three of the most recognized vascular diseases include Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, Carotid Artery Disease, and Peripheral Arterial Disease. 

A vascular surgeon diagnoses and manages conditions affecting blood circulation in the human body. They treat all parts of the vascular system apart from the heart and the brain.

Vascular surgeons take a comprehensive approach to their specialty. They offer advice on prevention and stay up-to-date on the latest research advances in treatments and medications. Surgeries range from non-invasive techniques to complex open procedures. In addition, surgeons often build rewarding life-long relationships with patients and colleagues.

1. Complete your education. As a medical doctor, a vascular surgeon will need to complete about eight years of higher education, including undergraduate studies and medical school.

2.  Begin your residency and fellowship. Finding the right residency is an integral part of positioning yourself for a vascular surgeon position. It provides you with the skills and experience and can also help you make valuable connections when entering the job market. There are multiple paths to vascular surgery; for example, you can apply directly into an integrated vascular residency program from medical school, or you can pursue a vascular surgery fellowship after completing a general surgery residency. Read more here

3. Get certified. You will need to earn your board certification before you can start practicing. Examinations are only given once per year, so you will need to spend a significant amount of time studying to ensure you pass.

4. Apply for available positions. Target positions that are realistic for your current experience level. If possible, applying to hospitals where you have experience or where a former mentor works can help increase your chances of earning the position. A strong resume highlighting your education, residency, fellowship, and most valuable skills is important throughout the application and training process.

Explore the resources on this website. Most importantly, talk to a mentor, current vascular surgeons, and trainees about their experience and why they chose vascular surgery. If you’re undecided, explore a variety of specialties by shadowing and talking with current trainees and practicing physicians in the field.

• Learn more about Student Resources here.

• Learn more about the value of a Mentor here.

Click on the links below to learn more:

• Read more about a day in the life of a vascular surgeon at NYU Langone Health here

• Watch the day in the life of a 3rd-year surgery resident here

• Read more about vascular surgery here

Mary Binko, medical student, UPMC (Pittsburgh, PA):

“Prior to medical school, I didn’t know anything about vascular surgery. I was lucky to be introduced to the field through an introductory course early in medical school, but I think one challenging aspect of vascular surgery as a medical student is initially discovering this amazing field.”

The overall competitiveness level of vascular surgery is high. As of January 26, 2022, the USMLE Step 1 exam has officially become pass/fail. It has become an important milestone in determining your choice of specialty and the residency program you match into. For Step 2, a good scoring range is 230 – 255, which will likely open doors to the specialty, especially paired with a good performance.

Not only do you get to be the surgeon’s surgeon, often helping surgeons complete their operations successfully when blood vessels are involved. You get to save people’s lives – both in the acute setting (e.g., life-threatening bleeding) and chronic setting (e.g., preventing progression of atherosclerotic disease). In addition, you get to build rewarding, long-term relationships caring for and treating your patients.

In the last two decades, there has been an increase in the proportion of female applicants and matriculants to medical school and surgical residencies. Trends have changed to address the diversity-related issues regarding gender, race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation disparities within the vascular surgery field. Learn more about the diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here

The Diversity Medical Student Travel Scholarship has been developed to help provide vascular surgeons with an opportunity to attend the Vascular Annual Meeting, and to enhance the professional network of medical students from underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities within the vascular surgery specialty. For more information and to apply for a diversity scholarship, click here 

The diversity of the vascular surgeon also allows them to meet the health needs of an increasingly diverse patient population within disadvantaged communities, which are underfunded or have under-resourced backgrounds. They need to identify the groups that would most benefit from the medical care and then partner with the community organizations to help them access the highest quality vascular surgical care. An example of a vascular surgeon’s “service to all” can be found here

Learn more about URiM Opportunities for Visiting Students here.

Vascular surgeon pay is generally in the Top 5 of all surgical specialties – it ranges from $358,818 to $495,588, with the average base salary of $423,081.

The work-life balance of a vascular surgeon can vary immensely, but that is one of the aspects of vascular surgery that makes it appealing, such as primarily outpatient vein/dialysis access vs. complex aorta work. Vascular surgery does offer more variety but also has more emergencies than other specialties. Vascular patients often require around-the-clock care; therefore, you will need to tailor your practice to your lifestyle needs. Training is difficult no matter what specialty you pursue in medicine. Many vascular surgery programs now have 1-2 years dedicated to professional development time, and the hard work pays off in the end.

A vascular surgeon makes sure patients with vascular health issues know and understand all their options. In short, vascular surgeons can do surgery, but they see and treat many patients who don’t always require surgery. Many vascular problems can be treated with medication or exercise. As one vascular surgeon explained, “I spend 80 percent of my time trying to talk my patients out of having surgery.” A vascular surgeon also has the opportunity to manage a patient’s vascular health on an ongoing basis for a lifetime.

There are various types of vascular surgery, depending on the identified problem. Listed below are some of the conventional techniques for addressing issues affecting the vascular system.

• Angioplasty and Stenting
• Atherectomy
• Arteriovenous (AV) Fistula
• Arteriovenous (AV) Graft
• Open Abdominal Surgery
• Thrombectomy
• Vascular Bypass Surgery
• Open Carotid and Femoral Endarterectomy

While there is not presently a framework for sub-specialization in pediatric vascular surgery, there are certain pediatric pathologies that electively or urgently fall within the scope of comprehensive vascular surgery care.  Examples of such include, but are not limited to, dialysis access for end-stage renal disease, vascular trauma with resultant vascular disruption or ischemia, exertional entrapment syndromes, vascular malformations, sequelae of inflammatory arteritis and developmental arterial dysplasia (like aneurysms and mid-aortic syndrome). For those with an interest in pediatric vascular surgery, although robust clinical exposure to pediatric vascular surgery is unlikely for most trainees, forging a strong foundation of skills that encompass pediatric anatomy and physiology as well as open vascular surgical exposures and techniques will prove extremely valuable. Maintain humility and leverage institutional collaborative expertise. Always do what is best for the patient and learn from those who care for children with regularity (including, but not limited to, congenital cardiac surgeons, pediatric surgeons, vascular surgeons, pediatric interventional radiologists, and microvascular specialists)!

All of the above! Vascular surgeons are needed in all types of health systems.