Vancouver General Hospital

Vancouver General Hospital(VGH) is a Level one trauma center and among the largest hospitals in Canada. VGH hosts a variety of tertiary services for adult patients with close to half of the patients being referred from outside the Greater Vancouver Area. With 6 staff vascular surgeons and a dedicated vascular step-down unit, VGH is the main training site for UBC vascular residents.

Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm surgery is a highly specialized program that is unique to VGH and requires extensive resources and surgeon skillsets including a strong collaboration with the cardiac surgery service at VGH.  These patients may be treated either with open surgery or with advanced fenestrated/branched endovascular techniques. VGH is home to the state of the art hybrid theatre which is equipped with dedicated intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) making it the ideal facility for treating these complex patients.

VGH is also a tertiary/quaternary center for transplant, advanced surgical oncology(general surgery, hepatobiliary, ortho, gynecology, urology), complex spine, advanced plastic surgery/peripheral nerve surgery, trauma services(both ortho and general surgery),complex thoracic aortic/cardiac surgery.  The majority of these services for BC are focused at VGH and regularly require vascular surgical assistance/collaboration for planning, reconstruction and life saving emergency intervention in order to be successful.

The largest stroke neurology program in BC is also located at VGH and vascular surgery plays a key role in managing a large volume of extracranial cerebrovascular disease associated with that patient population.

The Vascular Surgery service at VGH also extends out to affiliated sites including UBC Hospital and False Creek Surgical Center to carry out dialysis access and venous procedures. As a result, trainees at this institute are truly exposed to the whole breadth of vascular pathologies.