Peripheral Vascular Surgery

Abstract

Development of peripheral vascular surgery as a specialty was slow in old China. Before 1949, vascular surgery was limited to ligative procedures for arterial injuries, obliterative or restorative aneurysmorrhaphy for arterial aneurysms, high ligation and sclerosing injection for lower limb varicosities and conservative treatment for deep vein thrombosis. The field of this surgical specialty was small and the diagnostic as well as the surgical techniques were relatively simple. Since the establishment of New China in 1949, much progress has been made and the field of peripheral vascular surgery has expanded. Beside vascular injuries, various obliterative and vasospastic vascular diseases such as thromboangiitis obliterans and Raynaud’s syndrome came to the forefront. Various diagnostic methods such as angiography, lymphangiography, ultrasonography, isotopic scanning and hematological as well as biochemical laboratory investigation methods have been adopted. New therapeutic methods and techniques such as vascular reconstruction and vascular grafting have been widely practiced. Development of combined traditional Chinese and Western medical treatments especially for thromboangiitis obliterans, and more recently development of microsurgery have opened up a new horizon in vascular surgery.