Heineman Vascular Center

Overview
The James H. Heineman Vascular Center was established in 2002 at the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute as a collaborative effort between The Sanger Clinic, Carolinas Medical Center and the Heineman Institute.

Our goal is to provide patients a single place to go for the evaluation, treatment and prevention of peripheral arterial and venous problems.

In this one location, we offer the services of vascular surgeons, vascular cardiologists, non-invasive vascular laboratory, diagnostic angiography, endovascular surgery and open surgery.

The philosophy of the physicians and staff of the Heineman Vascular Center is to provide the most effective and safest care to each patient through a multi-specialty and multi-modality approach.

Peripheral Vascular Service
The consolidated resources in the newly created James H. Heineman Vascular Center provide patients with fully integrated services for vascular diagnosis. This includes an outpatient ambulatory vascular care center and our non-invasive vascular laboratory.

The William W. Gainey Investigative Suite, a state-of-the-art angiography facility created within the Center, features an Integris angiography complex. The Center is close to the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute's operating rooms where all "open" vascular procedures are performed. Such consolidation of services now allows a more efficient delivery of both diagnostic and interventional procedures and an increased opportunity to coordinate the expertise of cardiovascular specialists with different backgrounds.

Patient visits, including outpatients, non-invasive studies and angiographic studies, have steadily increased since the opening of the Vascular Center. The surgical caseload for the vascular service continues to grow, with more than 450 open surgical cases performed in the past year. Angiographic procedures are being performed by both vascular surgeons and by our vascular interventional cardiologist partners.

Our vascular service has also been active in research which has yielded numerous presentations and publications.

Vascular surgeons specialize in the care and treatment of all vessels outside the heart and brain. Our surgeons treat arteries that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to all areas of the body, as well as veins that return blood to the heart. This includes the aorta that feeds the abdomen and legs, and the carotid arteries that feed the brain, as well as many smaller vessels. Sanger's vascular surgeons can also treat wounds caused by the lack of blood supply to lower legs and feet.

Additionally, vascular surgeons perform minimally invasive treatment options where graft placement can substitute for conventional surgery in a much simpler procedure. The surgeon cuts a small opening to insert the device that carries the graft. This enables a shorter recovery time and less pain. Our surgeons can also perform diagnostic testing such as arteriography. The vascular surgery specialty remains focused on open procedures which we perform when indicated.

Some of the conditions treated at the Heineman Vascular Center include: