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Vascular Services
Why St. Joseph Hospital
When you need care from highly-trained, compassionate vascular specialists, you can depend on St. Joseph Hospital for the quality of care you need and deserve. St. Joseph Hospital’s vascular team provides full spectrum of care, including medications, minimally invasive therapies, as well as surgery for vascular diseases.
Vascular Services
Our expert vascular surgeon, Dr. Laurence Young, offers you a specialized approach in diagnosis and treatment of any condition that affects the body’s blood vessels. This includes arteries, veins, and lymphatic system, part of the circulatory system that helps fight infection and removes fluid from tissues.
Because blood vessel conditions and diseases may involve more than one of the body’s systems at a time, a team approach ensures comprehensive care of patients with both routine and complex conditions. With a skilled team of recognized experts, we bring together a vascular surgeon, interventional radiologists, wound care specialists, and specially trained nursing staff for experience in blood vessel diagnosis and expert treatment.
You might need to see a vascular doctor if you’re at high risk of vascular disease. Below is a list of potential risk factors:
- Over 50 years of age
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Heart disease
- Smoking (current or past)
- Family history of heart or vascular disease
At your first appointment, our vascular surgeon will ask you about your medical and family history. We recommend bringing a current list of medications and medical conditions. We also recommend wearing comfortable clothing that is easy to change out of, since you may need to change into a gown. After discussing your history, our vascular surgeon will perform an exam. They will diagnose your condition and recommend an appropriate treatment plan. It may include further tests, lifestyle changes, medication, surgery, or combination of any of these.
Below is a list of potential symptoms of vascular diseases:
- Leg pain with walking or at rest
- Slow or non-healing sores on feet
- Swelling, tightness, or weakness in legs
- Cold or discolored hands/feet
- Inability to control movement on one side of the body
- Temporary vision loss, blurry vision, or floating spots
- Clusters of veins on legs
- Bulging or painful veins on legs
- High blood pressure with decreased kidney function
Dr. Young treats a wide variety of vascular diseases at St. Joseph Hospital Some of those include:
- Aortic aneurysm
- Carotid artery disease
- Critical limb ischemia
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Lymphedema
- Peripheral arterial disease (PAD)
- Thoracic outlet syndrome
- Varicose veins
- Venous insufficiency
- Wound Care
Frequently Asked Questions
Most vascular diseases are caused by atherosclerosis, a disease of the walls of the vessels, and often called, “hardening of the arteries.” This may cause plaque build-up, which may block circulation or weaken the blood vessel wall, which may lead to aneurysm disease. Vascular disease afflicts millions of Americans each year and is one of the most frequent causes of death and disability among older Americans if not treated.
Vascular screening is a non-invasive, painless ultrasound that can easily detect an aneurysm, narrowing or blockages in the vascular system, allowing for accurate diagnosis and early treatment that can ultimately save your life.
Individuals who are over 55 years old, have smoked during their life, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary disease, or diabetes should have a screening. Anyone with a family history of aneurysms should also be screened with a duplex ultrasound.
Early detection for vascular problems can prevent stroke, disability, and death.
Testing is done directly at St. Joseph Hospital, with our team made up of a vascular surgeon, interventional radiologists, wound care specialists, and specially trained nursing staff.
An aneurysm is a weakened area of a blood vessel that expands or bulges. Many aneurysms occur in the aorta, the main artery moving blood from your heart to the rest of your body. Aneurysms occur as the wall of the blood vessel weakens and dilates over time. Aneurysms can occur due to genetics or a family history of aneurysms or trauma.
The most important factor predisposing to varicose veins is a strong history of similar problems occurring in other blood relatives. With such a family history, individuals presumably inherit weakened valves in the veins of their legs and under the right set of conditions, the veins become tortuous and dilated. Varicose veins can also develop after the valves in the veins are injured by a clot in the veins.
St. Joseph Hospital
172 Kinsley Street
Nashua, NH 03060
(603) 882-3000
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