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Vascular Surgery

The Division of Vascular Surgery at The Ottawa Hospital provides clinical care primarily to residents of Ottawa-Carleton and most of Eastern Ontario. The Division also serves as a tertiary referral centre for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and for parts of Western Quebec and Eastern Canada.

The Division of Vascular Surgery comprises five faculty members at the University of Ottawa who restrict their clinical practice to the diagnosis and management of vascular disease. Inpatient care has been centralized at the Civic Campus of The Ottawa Hospital. Surgical expertise within the Division includes management of cerebrovascular, thoracic, abdominal and peripheral vascular arterial, venous and lymphatic disease.

The Division is also responsible for the provision of permanent vascular access to the hemodialysis population in Eastern Ontario. The Division of Vascular Surgery runs an active endovascular stent graft program for the management of thoracic and abdominal aortic pathology in addition to traditional surgery.

The surgeons of the Division of Vascular Surgery also manage and run a large-volume non-invasive vascular diagnostic centre at the Civic Campus of The Ottawa Hospital. This laboratory is fully accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL).

As well as providing valuable high-quality diagnostic services, the Vascular Diagnostic Centre provides an excellent training environment for vascular sonographers and for the training of surgeons in diagnostic theory and technique. Such training provides an excellent preparation for completing the Registered Vascular Sonographers examination by the trainees.

Medical Education

The Division of Vascular Surgery at the Civic Campus comprises one of the largest single-site clinic and operating room volumes for vascular surgery in Canada . As such, it is an ideal site for the educational experience of medical students and surgical residents.

The training program in the Division of Vascular Surgery provides ample clinical experience for residents from other training streams (urology, general surgery, cardiac surgery, orthopaedic surgery) who require exposure to vascular surgery. Residents from other training programs in Canada are frequent visitors to Ottawa for an excellent experience in vascular surgery.

The Division also runs a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada accredited Residency Program in Vascular Surgery and can accommodate 1-3 residents in vascular surgery at any given time. These are usually surgeons who have completed residency programs in general surgery.