Your brain needs 2 things to work properly—blood and oxygen. The carotid arteries located on each side of your neck deliver both. When these arteries become narrow or blocked, it can lead to serious health problems including stroke.
Carotid artery disease often develops without symptoms, but warning signs like dizziness, sudden numbness or a mini-stroke (TIA) could mean it's time to get checked. High blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol can increase your risk, but early detection can make all the difference. Using a mix of lifestyle changes, medication and advanced procedures, we’ll help you protect your health, feel your best and move forward with confidence.
Our health is shaped by the way our body’s systems work together. When one part of the system isn’t functioning properly, it can affect everything. Carotid artery disease is a condition where the arteries that supply blood to your brain become narrowed or blocked, putting you at risk for serious health issues like stroke. Understanding this condition is important, so you can take the right steps to protect your health and well-being. We treat the full range of carotid artery conditions, including:
Certain things can make you more likely to develop carotid artery disease. Some you can control, and others you inherit from your family. These factors may increase your risk:
Knowing these risks can help you take steps to protect your health.
We use the latest cardiovascular imaging technology to get a clear picture of your arteries. We turn to the following tests to look for plaque buildup, reduced blood flow and other abnormalities, we may recommend the following tests:
Treating carotid artery disease can sometimes be as simple as making a few changes to your lifestyle, like exercising more, eating a healthy diet and quitting smoking. We may also prescribe medication to help prevent blood clots or lower cholesterol.
In addition to these methods, our team of vascular surgeons is well-equipped to address your carotid artery condition. Whenever possible, we’ll use minimally invasive methods.
For milder cases of carotid artery disease, we may use a catheter-based procedure called carotid angioplasty with stenting. This method involves a small puncture in the groin, through which we insert a tiny mesh tube called a stent. The stent helps open the artery and pushes the plaque against the artery wall, allowing better blood flow.
We may perform a carotid endarterectomy when a carotid artery blockage is significant. This surgical procedure involves removing plaque from the artery through an incision in the neck to improve blood flow to the brain.
A carotid body tumor is a mass that grows in the blood vessels near the carotid arteries. We treat this condition with a vascular surgery called carotid body tumor resection. During the procedure, the surgeon carefully removes the tumor without clamping the arteries.
In more advanced cases, our vascular surgeons may need to replace the diseased segment of the carotid artery with a bypass graft. This involves using a section of another blood vessel from the body to create a new path for blood to flow around the blocked area.
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