Tag: Expert Vein Care

BLOOD THINNING MEDICATIONS PART 1: ANTICOAGULANTS: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW ARE THEY USED?

Posted on by Michael Kokinos

Over the next few weeks, I want to discuss the medications that vascular surgeons may prescribe.  These medications include anticoagulants, antiplatelets, statins, and other miscellaneous agents.  This week I will discuss anticoagulants!

Anticoagulation refers to agents that STOP the clotting of blood.  The clotting of blood starts with what is known as the coagulation cascade.  The cascade refers to a series of consecutive events each involving special proteins that are needed to occur for blood to form a clot.  Different anticoagulants block specific parts of the cascade.  The main reason we usually see patients with anticoagulants are for hypercoagulable states, certain heart arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation, and deep vein thromboses otherwise known as blood clots.  Hypercoagulable states are specific genetically inherited disorders that result in the blood being more likely to clot.  Atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias can cause blood clots to form in the heart.

 

Anticoagulant agents are given to prevent the formation of clots in the heart that can then break off and go to the brain, hands, feet, kidneys, or any other part of the body and cause problems. 

 

Deep vein thrombosis or blood clots mandate the prescription of anticoagulant therapy to ensure that more blood clot does not form.

 

Anticoagulants can be broken up by many different classification schemes.  For the purposes of this blog, I will limit our discussion here to agents that are appropriate for the OUTPATIENT (Outside of the hospital) setting.  Please speak with you private physician to answer any additional questions you may have regarding Anticoagulation medication of feel free to reach out to me directions for more information on how anticoagulation is used. Anticoagulation agents that are used during hospitalization or in the IN-PATIENT setting in patients are outside the scope of this article.

 

Up until the 2010’s the mainstay of anticoagulation therapy was with a drug called warfarin (Trade name: Coumadin).  Warfarin, though effective, requires the weekly or biweekly measurement of a specific lab for the blood called the prothrombin time.  The active monitoring of the prothrombin time facilitates modulation of dosing to always allow for safe levels of effective therapeutic anticoagulation.  Since the beginning of the 21st century new agents have come to market that require only taking one or two pills a day.  They include Xarelto or Rivaroxaban and Eliquis or apixaban.

If you have a question about how your medications may be affecting your vascular disease, please do not hesitate to call and schedule an appointment today!

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute is Silicon Valley’s largest and most trusted Vascular Surgery practice.  Serving South Bay communities for over 26 years, Dr Kokinos and her Colleague, Dr Ignatius Lau are the region’s foremost experts in advanced vascular care and provide innovative care for patients suffering from circulation relation problems. At South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute our job is to understand the “Why” so that you have real solutions to living a healthy life. Call us today at 408-376-3626 or visit our website at www.southbayvascular.com to learn about what makes us the most referred to vascular surgery clinic in Silicon Valley.

A MULTI-CULTURAL APPROACH TO VASCULAR CARE

Posted on by Angelica Rodezno

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute, with offices in Campbell and Gilroy CA., is recognized as one of the leading vascular surgery practices in Northern California. In addition to their cutting edge work in amputation prevention, South Bay Vascular Center is widely recognized as the leading center for the diagnosis and treatment of iliac-vein compression, medically know as May-Thurners disease, in the whole of the Western United States. Using the most advanced diagnostic imagining technology, Intra Vascular Ultrasound (IVUS), Dr’s Kokinos and Pineda have treated more patients for this mostly undiagnosed cause of leg swelling….a condition which often presents in patients as left leg swelling, than any other medical practice in the region.

Delivering exceptional care, however, involves much more than simply being the best practitioner. Exceptional patient care demands compassionate care. Exceptional patient care is born of a philosophy that understands the patient apart from their disease….it requires an understanding of how disease impacts every part of a patients life…their lifestyle, their family, their friends and most importantly, their future. Communicating this understanding to patients is difficult in the best of circumstances and when patients come from a different cultural system, communication becomes even more difficult.

At South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute, we pride ourselves in being able to communicate with our patients across multiple cultural and language barriers. To this point, our physicians and staff speak many different languages and represent a diversity of cultural and faith traditions. As native speakers South Bay Vascular Staff can communicate with our patients in the following languages:

  • Spanish
  • Greek
  • German
  • Hindi
  • Farsi
  • Russian
  • English
  • Tagalog
  • French
  • Turkish

Additionally, our staff is sensitive to many diverse cultural traditions, faith based gender sensitivities and ethnic differences.

South Bay Vascular Center is a community based surgical practice operating at the forefront of vascular medicine. Our physicians provide unmatched medical care by providing the best possible outcomes in the most difficult of circumstances. In our private, nationally accredited state of the art ambulatory surgery center and vascular ultrasonography laboratory we treat each and every patient with the utmost of respect allowing them to maintain their dignity in difficult times

Large medical systems, often referred to as “Big Box” medicine, are an operationally efficient and a very profitable way to practice medicine but delivering exceptional care is difficult as the underlying drivers are often constrained by larger “business” decisions instead of what’s in the best interest of the patient. At South Bay Vascular, we operate with a care philosophy wholly different than big box medicine and as such, provide an unmatched level of care not found anywhere else in the region.

A multi-cultural approach to providing exceptional vascular care is just one of the many ways that the physicians and staff at South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute strive to be the best at what we do. Together with providing the most sophisticated medical care we deliver exceptional patient care in the most difficult of circumstances.

If you our anyone else that you know suffers from problems in any part of their circulatory system, call us today to learn how we can help.