Vascular

Vascular disease includes any condition that affects the blood vessels in the body (arteries and veins) but not conditions of the heart.

Common vascular conditions that affect the arteries include abnormal swelling (aneurysm), narrowing (atheroma) and thrombus (clot).

Common conditions affecting veins include failure of valves, which can cause varicose veins but also deep vein thrombosis (DVT) if the clot extends into the pelvis.

How we help 

Our team provides diagnostic and treatment services for peripheral vascular diseases that affect the arteries and veins.

We work together with the interventional vascular radiology team to provide combined procedures in our advanced hybrid vascular theatre.

We’re also a referral centre for the National Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Programme (NAASP) and input our data into The National Vascular Registry (NVR) which publishes publicly available reports via the Vascular Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

We also host the Sussex Vascular Network, which provides care pathways for patients across Sussex.

Our vascular services

We provide non arterial vascular services at:

• Royal Sussex County Hospital
• St Richards Hospital
• Worthing Hospital
• Princess Royal Hospital
• Southlands hospital
• Other vascular network hospitals including Eastbourne District General Hospital, Hastings, Horsham, Crawley and East Surrey Hospital.

We will offer you an appointment at the hospital that best suits your needs and the clinic availability.

Services at Royal Sussex County Hospital

All arterial surgery is managed at the Royal Sussex County hospital, which acts as the regional Arterial Centre for the county.

Services include:

• Carotid endarterectomy. The carotid artery supplies blood to your brain. Narrowing of the carotid artery due to build-up of a plaque can sometimes lead to stroke. Patients sometimes get a warning with a mini-stroke or transient symptoms of weakness affecting their arm or face and speech or visual disturbances. These patients will sometimes benefit from an operation called a carotid endarterectomy procedure to clear the artery and prevent a stroke. This is usually performed as an urgent procedure under local anaesthesia.

• Repair of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (Triple “A”). When the wall of a blood vessel weakens, a balloon-like dilation called an aneurysm sometimes develops. This happens most often in the abdominal aorta, an essential blood vessel that supplies blood to your legs. Vascular surgery, including endovascular aneurysm repairs (EVAR) will be considered when an  abdominal aortic aneurysm reaches 5.5cm due to the increased risk of rupture. Emergency repair of ruptured aneurysms is also carried out and the department has one of the best outcomes for this emergency life-saving operation in the country.

• Aortic dissection. This is a life-threatening emergency that results from a split between the layers of the main artery (Aorta) in the chest. Most cases are managed by the cardiac surgeons, but many require joint management with vascular surgery.

• Revascularisation procedures. A sudden blockage (acute) or progressive blockage (chronic) of the lower limb arteries can lead to severe pain, gangrene and limb loss. Emergency and urgent procedures that include bypass, thrombo-embolectomy and endovascular interventions are carried out by the vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists.

• Major amputation. The majority of the vascular surgery amputation work is focused on lower limb amputations. This is carried out when revascularisation is not an option.

• Trauma. Major trauma can cause life or limb threatening injury to the blood vessels. These injuries are also managed by the vascular surgeons and the Royal Sussex County Hospital is also a regional trauma centre.

• Access for haemodialysis. The creation and maintenance of arterio-venous fistula (an abnormal connection between an artery and a vein) is also carried out by the vascular surgeons. The fistula Is used for providing haemodialysis for patients with renal failure.

Non-Arterial services across local UHSussex sites

These services include:

• diabetic foot complications and management
• pre and post operation care (including prehab and rehab) 
• varicose vein management treatment
• outpatient clinics
• minor amputations
• interventional radiology facilities
• vascular access for chronic renal failure
• claudication clinics
• vascular laboratory
• vascular assessment unit
• out of hours Vascular opinion

Vascular surgery

Vascular surgery takes place at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. The vascular surgical ward is on level 8 of the Thomas Kemp Tower, which contains the only vascular inpatient beds across the Trust (37 beds in total).  

Vascular assessment unit

The Vascular Assessment Unit does many different examinations from simple ankle brachial pressure measurements to complex vascular imaging studies. All the tests performed are non-invasive. The unit is staffed by vascular clinical scientists.

Examples include:

• Ankle/brachial pressure measurement with flow velocity waveforms to quantify the severity, and suggest the site, of peripheral vascular disease.
• Carotid duplex scanning to identify any haemodynamically significant disease responsible for TIA/CVA.
• Lower limb arterial duplex scanning to identify the site and morphology or arterial disease.
• Lower limb venous duplex scanning for venous incompetence (first line investigation of acute lower limb DVT should be a venometer test performed in Level 5 X-ray).
• Upper limb arterial and venous imaging (including axillary/sub-clavian vein thrombosis).
• Vascular “lumps and bumps” – aneurysm, pseudo-aneurysm, graft surveillance.

Meet the team

The University Hospital Sussex Vascular team consists of 11 Consultant Vascular surgeons, 1 Consultant Vascular Scientist, 6 Vascular Scientists, 6 Vascular nurse specialists, 7 Consultant Radiologists, the vascular surgical ward staff currently based on level 8 of the Thomas Kemp Tower and a number of non-clinical admin staff supporting the service.

Vascular consultants

• Mr Mahmoud Salman, Network Lead/Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Islam Ahmed, Specialist Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Mohamed Elahwal, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Matthew Button, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Mario Caruana, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Mark Edwards, Consultant Vascular and Trauma Surgeon and Clinical lead for the Major Trauma Centre
• Mr Karim El Sakka, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Rick Harvey – ESHT & Brighton Specialist Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Alexander Rodway, Locum Vascular Surgeon
• Mr Bjorn Telgenkamp, Consultant Vascular Surgeon
• Professor Syed Waquar Yusuf, Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon

Interventional radiologists

• Dr Said Allamki, Locum Consultant Radiologist
• Dr Bhaskar Ganai, Consultant Radiologist and Clinical Lead for Interventional Radiology
• Dr Amit Gupta, Consultant Radiologist
• Dr Yuri Gupta, Consultant Radiologist
• Professor Malcolm Johnston, Consultant Radiologist
• Dr Dhiraj Joshi, Consultant Radiologist
• Dr Chloe Mortensen, Consultant Radiologist

Vascular Assessment Unit

• Darren Cheal, Clinical Vascular Scientist – Deputy Lead
• Jodie Baker, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Norine Evangelista, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Georgie Frogley, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Emily Goodman, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Eloise O’Sullivan, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Ros Steele, Clinical Vascular Scientist
• Daiane Souza, Trainee Vascular Scientist
• Ioanna Xanthi, Trainee Vascular Scientist
• Amanda Hammond, Vascular Administrator

Vascular Nurse Specialists

• Sue Ward, Lead Vascular Nurse Specialist
• Jason Clark, Vascular Nurse Specialist
• Jo Hammersley, Vascular Nurse Specialist
• Maria Nicholls, Vascular Nurse Specialist
• Bronwyn Van Aarde, Vascular Nurse Specialist
• Wendy Williams, Vascular Nurse Specialist

Management

• Emma Gillingham, Head of Nursing for Renal and Vascular
• Pamela Heafield, Matron for Renal and Vascular
• Helen Martin, General Manager for Renal and Vascular
• Erin Burns, Vascular Network Manager

Contact us

Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton

St Richard’s Hospital

Worthing Hospital

Helpful resources