Vascular surgeons Robert Albrecht, MD, and Thomas Beadle, MD, have joined Cape Fear Valley Health to lead the system’s first vascular clinic. Cape Fear Valley Vascular Specialists is a new option for local patients seeking treatment for a variety of circulatory issues, such as varicose and spider veins, dialysis access management, abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), peripheral vascular disease (PVD), carotid artery stenosis and more.
Dr. Albrecht has been working in eastern North Carolina since 2005, while Dr. Beadle comes to the clinic from Texas, though he’s no stranger to the state.
“I have close family and friends in North Carolina, and I lived in North Carolina when I was young,” Dr. Beadle said. “I also graduated from Davidson College, near Charlotte. I’m looking forward to being back in North Carolina!” After Davidson, he attended New York Medical College, in Valhalla, N.Y., before completing residency at Tulane University, in New Orleans, followed by a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Like his partner, Dr. Albrecht also spent time in New Orleans. He attended Louisiana State University School of Medicine before completing a residency at The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University and a fellowship at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, Md. He’s also worked at other health systems in the region.
“What drew me to the specialty was the excellent mentors and surgeons in the field who I worked with during my training years,” Dr. Albrecht said. “I’m looking forward to providing a location where patients have caring staff as well as ease and convenience with all their vascular care in one location for seeing specialists and performing testing. I’ve also always enjoyed healthcare for older and geriatric patients.”
Dr. Beadle said he found his interest in vascular surgery because of the variety of treatments. Procedures range from minimally invasive interventions to open surgery.
“Nothing is ever boring,” Dr. Beadle said. “Each individual patient is quite different. Furthermore, unlike most surgeons, Vascular and Endovascular specialists follow patients long-term, often for life, so we are able to develop unique physician-patient relationships.”
Despite being surgeons, both stress that patients should understand that surgery is only part of what they do. And often they don’t need to do any surgery.
“A vascular surgeon only sometimes does surgery,” Dr. Albrecht said. “Patients shouldn’t worry that when they are coming to see us it means they need surgery. Often, we find that medical therapy is the most appropriate therapy, or a minimally invasive approach with catheter procedures, such as angioplasty or stenting.”
The nonsurgical half of what vascular surgeons do is called endovascular procedures, meaning there are no incisions. And many can be performed on an outpatient basis, with no hospital stay needed.
“But because we are skilled in performing open surgical procedures, we are able to provide the full array of vascular care when it’s called for, and we are the only medical specialists who can do so,” Dr. Beadle said.
Patients who do need surgery are reassured to know that the surgeons of Cape Fear Valley Vascular Specialists have focused years of training on vascular surgery as well as their specialized practice, which allows them to stay up-to-date with all the latest research and techniques needed to provide specialized care in this field.
“Our patients will be offered the best and most appropriate treatment or advice for their particular need,” Dr. Albrecht said. “All our focus and attention is strictly on vascular care and treatments. Vascular surgery has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, and it is always exciting to see where it takes us, and share that excitement when we help train and educate medical students and surgical residents.”
Cape Fear Vascular Specialists is located at 1251 Oliver Street in Fayetteville and is open Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday, from 8 a.m. to noon.