Noplanb Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hello! I've been doing some reading about some specialties/subspecialties in the past while and I've become interested in vascular surgery. I'm wondering if anybody can enlighten me on this specialty. I noticed that there are no 'Vascular Surgery' category on the CaRMS website, so how does one become a vascular surgeon? Are there any threads that discuss the pros/cons of this specialty? If not, can somebody with some experience tell me a bit about this specialty (other than what is on wikipedia)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastalslacker Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Vascular is a 2 year fellowship done after a 5 year general surgery residency. In the US there are two paths, one as above, and the other a direct entry vascular program. I don't know much about the details. I just finished 3 months on the Vascular service and it was pretty awesome. I think some of the piddly, money making procedures, like dealing with varicose veins and stenting vessels would be lame. However, there aren't many things more fun than a ruptured AAA. I understand my use of the word "fun" might seem insensitive, but don't care. These things will happen and somebody has to fix them, so you might as well find it fun and exciting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bones Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hello, I know very little about vascular surgery, except that I believe vascular surgery is a fellowship of general surgery, so you would apply to general surgery in CaRMS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsteen Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hello!I've been doing some reading about some specialties/subspecialties in the past while and I've become interested in vascular surgery. I'm wondering if anybody can enlighten me on this specialty. I noticed that there are no 'Vascular Surgery' category on the CaRMS website, so how does one become a vascular surgeon? Are there any threads that discuss the pros/cons of this specialty? If not, can somebody with some experience tell me a bit about this specialty (other than what is on wikipedia)? Hi there, Vascular surgery was one of the prime career paths that I was considering before and during medical school. It's a very interesting specialty where some wonderfully technical procedures are performed but it's a specialty, akin to cardiac surgery, that's also threatened by the evolution of interventional radiology. The patient population tends to be a little skewed (read: older folks with/without diabetes), which was a detractor for me, but I really enjoyed the procedures for which I scrubbed in, e.g., endarterectomies, varicose work, fem pops, etc. As for the path to vascular, currently in Canada it's via General Surgery. You complete the Gen Surg program and then do Vascular as a fellowship. This may change in Canada shortly, however as there are certain centres which are introducing dual, surgery-imaging residencies, most probably to keep pace with (or ward off) the interventionalists. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
007 Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 There's nothing quite like the smell of the gangrenous toe either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastalslacker Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 There's nothing quite like the smell of the gangrenous toe either! Choppity-chop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastalslacker Posted January 28, 2009 Report Share Posted January 28, 2009 Hi there, Vascular surgery was one of the prime career paths that I was considering before and during medical school. It's a very interesting specialty where some wonderfully technical procedures are performed but it's a specialty, akin to cardiac surgery, that's also threatened by the evolution of interventional radiology. The patient population tends to be a little skewed (read: older folks with/without diabetes), which was a detractor for me, but I really enjoyed the procedures for which I scrubbed in, e.g., endarterectomies, varicose work, fem pops, etc. As for the path to vascular, currently in Canada it's via General Surgery. You complete the Gen Surg program and then do Vascular as a fellowship. This may change in Canada shortly, however as there are certain centres which are introducing dual, surgery-imaging residencies, most probably to keep pace with (or ward off) the interventionalists. Cheers, Kirsteen Agreed IVR will be doing more. That said, most of the AAA px/ seen during my stint on Vascular were not EVAR candidates. Similarly, knowing the numbers, I wouldn't let anyone stent my ICA when compared to an endarterectomy. There will always be a need for vascular surgeons and a slight decrease in demand should not sway anyone from considering the field. They'll be needed if only to clean up after all the cath f-ups by IVR and cardiology (something that was more common than I would have thought prior to my rotation). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noplanb Posted January 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2009 Thanks all, These posts are just what I needed. I'll keep it on my 'specialties list'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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