Dr. Kokinos was recently honored at the American Venous Forum in New Orleans as a expert on the treatment of deep venous disease. Her groundbreaking research on the Correlation of Transabdominal Ultrasound with IVUS in Diagnosing Iliac Vein Stenosis adds to the growing body of medical literature in the evolving field of deep venous pathology and treatment. Congratulations Dr. Kokinos on your recent honor.
Author: Angelica Rodezno
IMPROVING THE LIVES OF OUR PATIENTS
Improving the lives of our patients is the foundation of everything that we do. In pursuit of this goal we strive to provide the most advanced vascular treatments available and to care for our patients in a compassionate and respectful manner.
At South Bay Vascular Center, we give our patients hope when others say there is none. By providing the most advanced vascular care available in our own state of the art angiography suite, South Bay Vascular has grown into the leading center for amputation prevention in Northern California. When other physicians say an amputation is necessary, our physicians perform diagnostic testing few, if any other centers in the area can provide. As a result, our physicians save more legs than any other doctors in the region.
Dr. Kokinos and Dr. Pineda perform more lower leg re-vascularization procedures than any other vascular surgeons in the area. Each year we save hundreds of patients from below knee and above knee amputations by performing specialized procedures that few other surgeons in the area are trained to perform.
Additionally, we work tirelessly to spread the word that patients facing amputation should always ask what else can be done to save their limb before going ahead with their amputations. Our goal is to educate anyone being told they need an amputation that they need a second opinion from a board certified Vascular Surgeon. When their doctors can’t answer the simple question of what does the inside of their artery look like, it’s time to ask for a second opinion.
But we can’t do this alone! We need everyone’s help to spread this message. There is hope for many patients facing diabetic amputation but, every week we see patients who have tragically already undergone an amputation without getting an informed second opinion from a Vascular Surgeon. For these patients, it’s too late.
We invite everyone to use the immense power of the social network to help spread the word that there is Hope for many of these patients. Reach out to everyone you know and let them know that if they or anyone they known is facing a potential lower limb amputation they need to call our office for a second opinion.
Our goal is to stop unnecessary amputations. Please Help!
Spread the word to everyone you know. Like us on Facebook, tweet this message to your friends, share this story over a drink… snap chat and Instagram the message that the physicians and staff at South Bay Vascular can Help!
Call us at 408-376-3626 to schedule an appointment or visit our website www.southbayvascular.com to learn more about what can be done to stop unnecessary amputations. Join us today and
Take A Stand Against Amputation!!
SAN JOSE DIALYSIS ACCESS CENTER
South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute is the only independent Dialysis Access Center in Santa Clara County to offer full time vascular surgery coverage by board certified vascular surgeons. Don’t let your loved ones needing dialysis access care suffer needlessly by waiting in a hospital emergency room. If you or anyone you know finds themselves waiting for dialysis access care, call us at 1-855 WE-D-CLOT. We can help.
SOUTH BAY VASCULAR AMPUTATION PREVENTION EFFORTS SHOWCASED IN FRONT PAGE ARTICLE OF GILROY DISPATCH
On Friday, February 3, 2017 Dr. Kokinos and Dr. Pineda of South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute were featured in a full length cover story discussing their Northern California Regional Amputation Prevention efforts. The physicians and staff of South Bay Vascular wish to thank the Gilroy Dispatch for their work writing this story and for recognizing the importance of educating the South Bay Community on alternatives to amputation. We invite everyone to read this incredible story of how our South Bay Vascular Center Surgeons and staff are serving their community by giving them hope in the face of these tragic circumstances. Congratulations to the entire staff.
The full story can be accessed by clicking the following link:
CLICK HERE!
SOUTH BAY VASCULAR CENTER: SIMPLY THE BEST VARICOSE VEIN TREATMENT CENTER IN SAN JOSE
Millions of Americans suffer from varicose veins. In adult western populations it is estimated that visible varicose veins are present in 20 to 25% of women and 10 to 15% of men.
Both invasive and non-invasive (i.e surgical and non-surgical) methods are available to treat varicose veins. Non-invasive methods include wearing compression stockings, exercising, leg elevation, losing weight, not wearing tight clothes, avoiding long periods of standing or sitting and not crossing your legs while seated. Invasive treatments include endovenous therapy, ligation, and phlebectomy.
Endovenous therapy is a treatment from inside the vein using heat generated by lasers, radiofrequency devices or chemicals to irritate the vein walls causing the vein to close and then be reabsorbed by the body. Ligation is tying off a vein to cause it to shrink. Phlebectomy is REMOVAL of varicose veins, NOT the closing of a vein. Only after your physician evaluates a patients vascular ultrasound study are they in a position to discuss the best treatment option for their patients.
Recognized by her peers as one of the pre-eminent vascular surgeons in the region, Dr. Kokinos serves as Chair of the Cardiovascular department at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, CA. and was recently appointed as the Medical Director of both the O’Connor and St. Louise wound care centers. Dr. Kokinos has performed over 10,000 vein procedures over the past 20 years and brings this experience to all of her patients.
Lots of centers treat venus reflux or “leaky valves” when they show up as painful and unsightly varicose and spider veins. Fast cosmetic fixes, however, can often mask more serious underlying circulation issues that only a vascular surgeon is trained to address. For this reason, it is vitally important that patients understand their options for treatment as well as the credentials of their treating physician.
NO PATIENT SHOULD UNDERGO A VARICOSE VEIN TREATMENT PROCEDURE WITHOUT FIRST HAVING HAD A DETAILED VASCULAR ULTRASOUND STUDY BY A REGISTERED VASCULAR ULTRASONOGRAPHER FOLLOWED BY A RPVI READ OF THIS STUDY.
At South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute we are Board Certified Vascular Surgeons. We are NOT phlebology doctors nor cardiologists who have learned how to treat cosmetic veins or Peripheral Vascular Disease (PAD) at a weekend course or seminar and who treat varicose and spider veins as a means to supplement their primary practice.
Vascular Surgeons have completed an accredited 5-7 general surgery residency program followed by an additional 2 years in an accredited vascular surgery fellowship program specifically focused on the treatment of arterial and venous disease…. and that’s after spending 4 years in medical school and 4 years in college. Treating diseases of the circulatory system IS our primary practice and it is what we have been trained to do.
Unlike many other cosmetic vein centers, every South Bay Vascular surgeon is either ABMS board certified or board eligible. Established as the Gold Standard in medicine, board certification is only awarded to a select few physicians following their completion of a rigorous training in a board eligible fellowship program. Even after completing fellowship training, board certification is not granted until after the physician has passed a series of exhaustive clinical and written examinations and must be renewed every 10 years.
“Phlebologists” on the other hand sometimes refer to themselves as being “Board Certified” in Phlebology. In actual fact there is no such ABMS designation. Instead, board certification in “Phlebology” is granted by an association of Phlebologists and not by the American Board of Medical Specialties. A Phlebology board is received simply by taking a written exam , without having completed a rigorous and specialized clinical fellowship.
Dr.’s Kokinos and Pineda provide an unmatched level of varicose vein care and treatment in the greater San Jose area. Compassionate care in a personalized setting using the most advanced Varicose Vein Treatment options sets them apart as the regions foremost varicose vein care experts. We are proud to bring the highest level of vascular care to our patients and would be honored to work alongside you, our patient, in your ongoing efforts to live a healthy and productive life.
We look forward to meeting you at our office. Call our office today to schedule an appointment at 408-376-3626.
WE GIVE YOU HOPE FOR PREVENTING DIABETIC AMPUTATIONS
COMMON FORMS OF VASCULAR DISEASE
LEG SWELLING CAN BE MORE THAN JUST VARICOSE VEINS
Time and again, patients come to our office following a vein procedure by local Vein “Experts”, Vein “Specialists” and Phelebologists complaining that their legs continue to hurt and to swell even after their varicose vein procedures. Disappointed and scared, many of these patients have spent thousands of dollars, have undergone multiple procedures and have endured months of pain, only to find that they have been treated for the wrong condition and have been told that there is nothing else that their doctor can do to help them. Not knowing where else to turn, patients walk into our office knowing that something is just not right and hoping that we we can help.
The question is, why is this happening?
For the past 23 years the physicians and surgeons at South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute have dedicated their entire practice to treating patients with the full range of venous issues–from cosmetic spider veins to non-healing venous ulcers. Since 2005 alone, we have performed over 10,000 endovenous closure procedures in our office, and have done thousands more phlebectomies and sclerotherapy sessions in an effort to help our patients return to a normal life. At South Bay Vascular, we are not just a varicose vein treatment center or vein clinic; we are a group of board certified vascular surgeons, clinically trained to treat patients with problems in any part of their circulatory system. Treating varicose veins is not something we have learned at a weekend course or seminar as a way to augment our primary practice…veins are our primary practice and that is what we have been clinically trained to do.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. And that is why so many patients come to our office looking for help.
Many of our patients, having been previously treated for varicose veins by cardiologists, internists, dermatologists and phlebologists positioning themselves as Vein “Specialists” and Vein “Experts”, but have conditions far more complicated than “leaky valves” that show up as varicose veins. In most of the complications we see, patients have been treated by doctors thinking the problem could be easily fixed using a VNUS, EVLT or Sclerotherapy procedure. Unfortunately for the patient many times this simple procedure does not work because their underlying medical condition is a much more complex and difficult problem to treat. When a patients problems persists, these same doctors end up referring these patients to an emergency room or to a vascular surgeon hoping their complications can be undone. Worse yet, sometimes these same doctors simply tell their patients that there is nothing else that can be done for them.
In our years of treating patients with venous disease we have achieved a technical success rate using our endovenous VNUS and laser procedures of nearly 100%. But NEARLY 100% is a far cry from 100%. Some patients don’t feel better. Some patients, continue to have legs that ache, legs that remain swollen, and wounds that do not heal. Some of our patients were just not getting better.
Up until about two years ago, all we could do for those patients whose legs did not heal was to repeat the ultrasound and hope to find some other vein issue that we could treat. Sometimes this worked; but many times it didn’t. In the instances when we did find a secondary vein or discovered that a vein treated earlier just did not close entirely, we would proceed to treat this vein a second time; but even then, many of our patients simply did not get better. Our question continued to be Why?
After 20 years and tens of thousands of patients, we discovered that in certain patients, there was in fact, another mechanism in the venous system that was keeping our patients from getting better. It was called May-Thurners Syndrome.
What we have discovered is that in many of the cases where our patients did not heal, the problem wasn’t with the the Greater Saphenous Vein (the main vein treated in the vast majority of varicose vein procedures) but with the iliac veins; the vein between the belly button and the groin. What we discovered was that problems in the iliac vein could cause many of the same types of symptoms and problems that we saw when there were leaky valves in the leg veins. What we learned was that the problems with the iliac vein were usually the result of a compression or a scarring. What we discovered was that iliac vein compression (first identified in the early 50’s by Dr’s May and Thurner) happened because of the way the iliac vein is anatomically positioned between a beating artery and a hard pelvic bone and that often times this presented as varicose veins and swollen left legs.
Iliac Vein Compressions not only causes elevated pressure in the left leg resulting in aching, swelling, and non-healing wounds, but predisposes the left side to a much higher risk of blood clots after orthopedic surgery, long flights or drives, cancer, periods of immobility or bed rest.
Very few doctors, it turns out, are able to treat iliac vein compression, because one has to be a vascular surgeon and or an interventional radiologist to do so. Many of the so-called phlebologists, and “vein doctors”, who decided to abandon their field of training to treat varicose veins and other cosmetic issues, are not people who were trained in their residencies or fellowships to perform this type of procedure. Nor were they trained in ultrasound or in understanding the flow dynamics of the vascular system. Because of this lack of clinic training, they are unable to treat iliac vein compression, and so they ignore it, keeping many patients from options that could help improve their daily lives, relieve their leg swelling, and heal their leg wounds.
At South Bay Vascular, we have trained and have performed thousands of venus procedures and have treated hundreds of cases of iliac vein compression. We are experts in all aspects of vascular surgery, including conditions like iliac vein compression. Unlike phlebologists, we can offer all approved treatment options to patients for the treatment of their leg aching, swelling, and discoloration. Most importantly, it is our state of the art accredited vascular lab and registered ultrasound technologists who make so much of what we do at south bay vascular possible. Our advanced vein mapping and screening protocols, together with our national accreditation gives us the ability to do cutting edge surgical procedures; this is what sets us apart from nearly every other vein clinic and treatment center in the whole of Northern California.
Because of the advances in medical imaging and device technology, a large number of our procedures can be done on an outpatient basis in our office. Dr. Kokinos is a recognized leader in the area of deep venous disease and has treated more patients in northern California using Intravascular Ultrasound than any other physician in the region. As a result of her cutting edge treatment protocols and surgical techniques, Dr. Kokinos has been recognized as an international expert and has been an invited speaker at national vascular and interventional meetings in San Francisco, Miami, and Colorado over the last 6 months to discuss her findings and her treatment for patients presenting with these types of problems. Most recently she has been asked to speak at the main venous meeting in the United States, the American Venous Forum, where she will be presenting her clinical research on the use of non-invasive and minimally invasive techniques to diagnose and treat iliac vein compression.
Currently, Dr. Kokinos serves as the Medical Director of the Wound Care Centers at O’Connor and St. Louise Hospitals, and is the Chairperson of the Cardiovascular department at San Jose’s Good Samaritan Hospital. She and her partner, Dr. Carlos E. Pineda, are dedicated to offering patients suffering from both arterial and venous wounds the most cutting-edge and effective treatments available to save their legs, stop their pain, and improve their lives.
If you or anyone you know suffers from varicose veins, diabetic infections, non-healing leg wounds and or are facing an amputation, please call our office to understand your options.
We offer hope when others say there is none.
408-376-3626
PREVENTING DIABETIC AMPUTATIONS IN SAN JOSE
Every year over 160,000 amputations are performed in America. 60%-80% of Medicare patients who undergo amputation never walk again. Worse yet, there is a 30-50%, 2-year mortality rate following an amputation…meaning that between 30% and 50% of all patients undergoing an amputation die within 2 years of their procedure.
Recent advancements in both imaging and medical device technology have significantly improved a patients chances for a different outcome: avoiding amputation. Educating patients about these new procedures, however, is still very difficult because many of these new advances are known only to the surgeons and universities pioneering them. In fact, recent studies show that more than 54% of patients were not even assessed using diagnostic angiograms to determine if blood flow could be restored to their affected limbs prior to the amputation. Earlier this year, Medicare published figures showing that a full 67% of medicare patients who underwent a major amputation never even had a re-vascularization procedure in an attempt to save their limb.
Dr.’s Kokinos and Pineda are recognized as specialists in the field of lower limb re-vascularization and limb salvage. Having performed more pedal access re-vascularization cases (approaching the affected limb via the foot instead of the groin) than any other physicians in the region provides these South Bay Vascular surgeons with the experience and judgement to help patients avoid diabetic amputations and to treat patients with advanced cases of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) or what is otherwise known as Chronic Limb Ischemia (CLI).
If you or someone you know is facing the possibility of lower limb amputation, STOP! CALL US FOR A SECOND OPINION. South Bay Vascular is Taking a Stand Against Amputation and you should too. Call us at 408-376-3626 to schedule a thorough evaluation of your options. We are specialists in the area of lower limb re-vascularization and we provide hope when others say there is none.
ACHING TIRED OR HEAVY LEGS?
