Tag: Silicon Valley wound care experts

Leading the Fight Against Vascular Disease in Silicon Valley

Posted on by Michael Kokinos

When Experience Leads—Others Imitate

In Silicon Valley, people expect excellence—not slogans. At South Bay Vascular Center & Vein Institute, we’ve set that standard for almost three decades. While others chase profits, we pursue outcomes.  Our care model is simple and sacred:

One Patient. One Doctor. One Nurse.

Every patient is personally evaluated by a board-certified vascular surgeon, not an NP, PA, or a marketing “vein specialist.” At South Bay Vascular, doctors—not financial managers—make the final call on your care.

Because for us, medicine isn’t a business strategy. It’s a calling.

The Vein Industry’s Dirty Secret

Scroll through social media and you’ll see it: endless ads from national “vein centers” promising Harvard-trained vein doctors, celebrity legs, and quick, painless fixes.
But look closer—many of these “experts” are anesthesiologists, pain doctors, or radiologists, not vascular surgeons. They’ve traded the operating room for an Instagram feed and call it innovation.

Treating varicose veins doesn’t make you a vascular surgeon—any more than test-driving a car makes you an engineer. A vascular surgeon is trained to understand the entire circulatory system—arteries, veins, and microvessels—across every organ of the body. They don’t just remove veins for cosmetics; they save legs, prevent strokes, and restore life to limbs most others would amputate.

What Makes South Bay Vascular Different

We treat the full spectrum of vascular disease—arterial blockages, aneurysms, carotid disease, non-healing wounds, and complex venous disorders.

Our surgeons trained at Columbia, UCSF, Washington University, NYU, and Harvard, and our results speak for themselves: thousands of successful limb-salvage cases, wound closures, and restored lives.

But our success didn’t come from fancy marketing. It came from doing the hard work—day after day, year after year, one patient at a time.

We don’t imitate others; we lead.

The Silicon Valley Analogy That Says It All

You can buy a smartphone that looks like an iPhone—but you’ll know the difference the moment you touch it:

Precision, craftsmanship, performance—those aren’t branding.

They’re the product of mastery.

That’s the same difference between a national “vein clinic” franchise and a true vascular surgery practice. Both may promise results, but only one is built from the inside out—designed by surgeons who understand every layer of vascular anatomy and who’ve spent their lives repairing what others only gloss over.

You don’t entrust your heart to a podiatrist. Why trust your circulation to a part-time “vein doctor”?

Doctors, Not Marketers

At South Bay Vascular, every diagnosis and every procedure decision is made by a board-certified vascular surgeon. We don’t delegate your health to staff with limited training or chase profits with unnecessary procedures. Our team includes highly trained nurses, registered vascular technologists, and surgeons working in perfect alignment—an ecosystem built on integrity, not income. A model we pioneered; not something we copied.

We’ve watched national chains expand through financial engineering—backed by private equity firms that see patients as revenue streams. That’s not us.

Our success was earned by putting patients first, not profits. Always has been. Always will be.

Now Is the Time

As the year draws to a close, most patients have already met their insurance deductibles—making this the perfect time to schedule vein or circulation treatments before 2026 resets your out-of-pocket costs.

Don’t wait. Varicose veins are more than cosmetic—they can signal deeper, dangerous circulatory issues.
Our Campbell-based outpatient vascular center offers same-day evaluations, advanced ultrasound diagnostics, and minimally invasive treatments—all performed by board-certified vascular surgeons.

If you want authentic expertise, decades of experience in the community setting and not advertising gloss, you’ll find it here.

Experience Matters—And It Shows

From Campbell to Santa Cruz, Gilroy to Fremont, and soon our new East San Jose office, South Bay Vascular continues to lead the fight against vascular disease throughout Silicon Valley. We didn’t buy this reputation; we didn’t copy the model for success from another vascular surgical practice: We earned it—one healed wound, one saved limb, and one grateful family at a time.

Because real care can’t be franchised. It’s built—by hand, by heart, and by the hands of surgeons who still believe medicine is about humanity, not margins.

If you or anyone you know suffers from a circulatory illness; require dialysis care; can’t sleep at night because of throbbing pain in your leg; or has varicose veins or swollen legs, call us today to schedule an appointent at 408-376-3626.

WE CAN HELP!

South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute

Leading the Fight against Vascular Disease In Santa Clara County for almost 30 years.

WOUND CARE AND HYPERBARIC OXYGEN

Posted on by Angelica Rodezno

Over the last few decades the treatment of chronic wounds (wounds that haven’t healed in 4 weeks) has become increasingly complicated and expensive. Thousands of specialized “Wound Care Centers” have cropped up across the country. The idea behind these is founded on the fact that getting these types of wounds to heal often requires physicians and nurses of different backgrounds and with special training. These centers are often made up of physicians such as podiatrists, general surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, vascular surgeons, plastic surgeons, infectious disease doctors, diabetic specialists, etc. The reason for that is that it is often the underlying medical issues such as diabetes, poor nutrition, the presence of infections, the use of drugs to treat diseases such as Lupus or Rheumatoid arthritis, that contribute to the poor healing of wounds. In addition, multiple products, surgical and nonsurgical techniques, and “advanced wound care therapies” are used when wounds just won’t heal.

Silicon Valley’s South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute doctors are recognized as the leading wound care doctors in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Recognized as the one of the leading wound care doctors in the country, Dr. Kokinos serves as the medical director of both the Verity/O’Connor Wound Care Center in San Jose and the St Louise Hospital Wound Care Center in Morgan Hill, CA. Dr. Kokinos brings her cutting edge expertise in wound care to patients from all over California who come for treatment at these facilities.

One of the most “hyped” of these treatments is the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen. This is 100% oxygen (normal air is about 21%) that is pressurized in a special tank and breathed by the patient over a period of about 90-120 minutes. This is done daily for thirty to forty treatments. It has been shown that this increases oxygen delivery to the tissues around the wound, and thus increases healing. Originally used to treat “the bends” after a scuba diving accident, today, most “dives” in the hyperbaric chamber are done for wound healing. Many insurers pay for this IF

  • The treatment is used to treat certain classes of wounds and
  • The wound has failed to improve after four weeks of standard therapy.

It is critically important that those two conditions are met, as hyperbaric treatment is not only quite expensive, but does have some significant side effects associated with it.

BE ADVISED: Often times wound care centers will promote this type of advanced therapy before adequately evaluating/treating the patient for the underlying factors that can contribute to non-healing. This is particularly true for vascular causes and is why before beginning any hyperbaric oxygen treatments patients must be seen and evaluated by a Vascular Surgeon. Vascular Surgeons are uniquely trained and qualified to evaluate the state of a patient’s underlying circulatory issues and patients should only agree to this kind of therapy only after speaking with their vascular surgeon.

Previously, vascular therapies often entailed long, dangerous operations to open blocked arteries. However, now, most of these treatments are minimally invasive (done through a poke in the groin or foot) and are often done in the office. Almost all patients, no matter how old nor what other medical conditions they may have, are candidates for these safe procedures.

Hyperbaric oxygen is also used for wounds in areas that have been radiated or that are the result of diabetes. Again, it is critical to optimize all other factors before progressing to “diving” or hyperbaric treatments.

VENOUS DISEASE AND WOUND HEALING

Posted on by Angelica Rodezno

One of the most common contributors to the development of leg wounds is venous disease. This can occur either because of venous insufficiency—leaky valves in the leg veins or because of issues stemming from a DVT (deep venous thrombosis). Both of these problems contribute by causing high pressure at the ankles that impair the healing of the wounds. Silicon Valley’s South Bay Vascular Center and Vein Institute doctors are recognized as the leading wound care physicians in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Dr. Kokinos is the medical director at both the Verity/O’Connor Wound Care Center in San Jose and St Louise Hospital Wound Care Center in Morgan Hill, CA.

Venous wounds have a classic appearance. The wound is generally around the inner or outer ankle bone and the skin around the wound is often very dark (hyperpigmented). The skin can also be quite leathery. Not everyone with a venous wound has varicose (bulgy) veins, but many do. These can often be painful, and even with excellent care, can take many months to heal. Although the diagnosis can be made by simple examination, it is important to do an ultrasound to get a roadmap of the venous system so that any problems that can be fixed are addressed.

The specialists who deal with the venous system best are called vascular surgeons. These doctors can deal with both leaky valves as well as blockages in the system. It is felt to be very important not only in helping these wounds heal, but in preventing them from coming back, to treat the underlying venous issues. For the leaky valves, this is done by sealing the veins closed, often using the VNUS closure catheter or a laser fiber. For blocked veins, they can often be treated with stents that will hold them open. These procedures are all minimally invasive and can be done in the office setting. With all venous ulcers, compression using medical grade stockings is vitally important. In addition, there is evidence that using an old drug called Trental or a newer one called Vasculera can help heal these wounds faster.