Q-and-A with Dr. Victor D'Addio, a Fredericksburg vascular surgeon

Date published: 7/1/2007

To give readers insight into the work that area medical professionals do, Healthy Living is launching an occasional series of question-and-answer stories featuring local health care providers.

BY JIM HALL AND JANET MARSHALL

Dr. Victor D'Addio, a vascular surgeon with Surgical Associates of Fredericksburg, is also the part-time medical director of the Rappahannock Wound Healing Center in Massaponax.

He treats people with conditions including carotid artery disease, peripheral artery disease, aneurysms and venous disease. The symptoms of these conditions are often silent. The problems can be severe.

A blockage in the carotid artery can lead to a stroke. A blockage in a peripheral artery can be a sign of widespread arterial problems. A ruptured aneurysm can be fatal.

D'Addio's work ranges from treating varicose veins with lasers to opening blocked arteries with stents to performing emergency surgery on patients with life-threatening ruptured aneurysms.

"That's one of the exciting things about the job--you never know what the day is going to bring," D'Addio said.

D'Addio offered insights about his practice and the medical profession.

Why did you become a doctor?

There's not this seminal event that got me there. It's just something I always wanted to do.

How do you treat the problems that you chiefly see?

Carotid disease is usually treated with an operation called a carotid endarterectomy, abbreviated CEA. That's an operation in the operating room, an incision in the neck, where we go in and clean out the artery and then close it back up. We literally take out the blockage in the artery [and] place a little patch on the artery where we've opened it.

It sounds horrible, but it's really just an overnight hospital stay. There's not a whole lot of postoperative discomfort. It's been a good operation for more than 50 years. That's actually the most common operation that I do.

Tell about some of the advice you give people so they never have to come see you.

Some of the things you can fix and some of the things you can't fix.

The biggie is smoking. Stop smoking or don't start smoking. [Eat a] low-fat diet. Get rid of your sedentary lifestyle. Walk every day. Exercise every day. If you're diabetic, control your blood sugar. If you're hypertensive, control your blood pressure. The basics.

What way does the business side affect the way that you practice medicine?

It's unfortunately a big part of how we practice medicine, and it's relatively new to me. I was in the military and academic settings where you just came to work and operated, and all that just happened. And then I was employed by the practice here for a year before I became a partner.

Name: Dr. Victor D'Addio Age: 40 Born: Newburgh, N.Y. Medical school: Tulane University Residency: Walter Reed Army Medical Center Specialty: Vascular surgery In Fredericksburg since: Summer 2005 Family: Wife, Dawn, and three children, ages 13, 11 and 8 Hobbies: Working outside and watching kids' basketball and soccer games

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Date published: 7/1/2007

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