Vascular Nursing and Vascular Surgery.

BACKGROUND Patients requiring vascular surgery have turned in older subjects with several comorbidities with frailty problems and increased vulnerability. Treating this kind of patients has become an important challenge both for vascular surgeons and for dedicated nurses, as these patients are more susceptible to post-operative complications and during discharge. Aim of this review is to analyze the role of vascular nurse in vascular surgery activities. METHODS For this study, Medline, ScienceDirect and Scopus databases were searched. The following keywords were used: nursing and vascular surgery; nursing and vascular disease; nursing and vascular procedure; care and vascular patient. RESULTS From the search strategy the following areas were identified as relevant and analyzed in detail: vascular disease related to vascular surgery, the definition of vascular nursing, the role of vascular nursing in implementing clinical pathways in vascular surgery procedures, nursing postoperative care in vascular surgery, frailty assessment in vascular patient, nursing in phlebology and wound care, and the management of vascular access. CONCLUSIONS Vascular nursing is a discipline that is able to provide comprehensive and optimal care, better postoperative outcomes, coordinated, standardized and cost-effective clinical pathways for patients managed in the area of vascular surgery.