Classification of vascular disease: Treatment, symptoms, advice and help

The vascular system consists of the heart and arterial tree, the veins and the microvascular elements: the capillaries and lymphatics. Age dependent, degenerative diseases that affect the vascular tree are by far the commonest causes of death and impaired quality of life in Western societies.

General vascular surgery is concerned with diseases of the larger arteries and veins in the neck, abdomen and limbs. Intracranial vascular disease is managed by neurosurgeons and cardiac and intrathoracic vascular disease by the cardiothoracic surgeons.

Arterial Disease

Arterial disease can be broadly classified into occlusive and aneurysmal.

Occlusive Arterial Disease
Occlusive arterial disease is where the lumen of the artery becomes progressively narrowed up to the point of complete occlusion. The primary cause is the process of atherogenesis that affects the inner layers of large and medium sized arteries.

Atherogeneis starts early in life and progresses at a rate that depends on a number of inherited and environmental factors such as smoking, high blood lipids (hyperlipidaemia), high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes mellitus. Atherogenesis is a systemic disease that affects all large and medium sized arteries to some degree, although it has a predilection for certain anatomical sites such as the heart (coronary arteries), the neck (carotid arteries) and the lower half of the body (aorta and lower limb arteries).

All occlusive arterial disease, has an incidence that increases progressively with age and the prevalence at any site is greater in patients with co-existing symptomatic occlusive arterial disease elsewhere. Occlusive arterial disease causes symptoms due to lack of adequate arterial blood supply (ischaemia) which results in limited function or tissue death (infarction). Occlusive arterial disease is the single commonest cause of death and disability through ischaemic heart disease (angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure), cerebrovascular disease (stroke) and lower limb arterial disease (intermittent claudication, critical limb ischaemia and amputation).

Aneurysmal Arterial Disease
Aneuysmal arterial disease is where the lumen of the artery becomes progressively dilated. Arterial aneurysms are classified into two types: true aneurysms that represent a progressive weakness of all three layers of the arterial wall (intima, media and adventitia) and false aneurysms which are contained arterial leaks and which only have an adventitial layer. The abdominal aorta is the commonest site for a true aneurysm.

The incidence of aortic aneurysm is greater in men and increases progressively with age. Aneurysms are a life threatening condition because a large aneurysm may rupture suddenly and without warning. There are an estimated 6000 deaths per year in the UK from ruptured aortic aneurysms, i.e. about that same number of people who die annually in road traffic accidents.

Venous Disease

Venous disease can be broadly classified into venous insufficiency and venous thromboembolism.

Venous Insufficiency
Venous insufficiency is very common and mainly affects the lower limb, primarily because of the upright human posture. Venous insufficiency covers a broad spectrum of severity from minor cosmetic varicose veins through functionally significant varicose veins to venous leg ulcers.

Venous insufficiency is a progressive, degenerative process and it is estimated that 30% of the adult population have a significant degree of venous insufficiency. In the UK alone 50,000 varicose veins operations per year are performed, mainly for mild disease. Venous leg ulcers affect around 1% of the adult population, mainly elderly