Lee Kirksey MD FACS

Lee Kirksey MD, a board certified Vascular Surgeon is a physician dedicated to improvement of the human condition, clearly demonstrated by his professional training, entrepreneurial activities and their impact on the lives of many.

Vascular Surgery is the treatment of disorders of blood vessels within the body. Commonly treated disorders include carotid stenosis for the prevention of disabling stroke, arterial bypass for blockages within blood vessels of the leg to prevent loss of limb as well as treatments for enlargements of blood vessels known as aneurysms, treatment of kidney failure and treatment of varicose veins. Click here to learn more about Vascular Surgery and life changing treatments.

Dr Kirksey completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at The Ohio State University. He the attended the College of Medicine where he was initially exposed to the specialty of surgery. Five years of General Surgery training were performed at The Graduate Hospital under the leadership of the renowned surgeon Charles C Wolferth Jr. MD.

Other Staff surgeons included James Weese MD, Dahlia Sataloff MD and Jerome Vernick MD. Following this period, he completed two years of Vascular Surgery training at the hands of Bruce J Brener MD and Michael L Marin MD. He actively participated in research regarding various topics in the nascent field of endovascular surgery with these two renowned surgical pioneers.

He returned to The Graduate Hospital where he pioneered the Endovascular Surgery program performing the first Endovascular Aneurysm Repair(EVAR). The patient, an 82 year old woman with severe breathing difficulties which prevented treatment of her life threatening condition with the conventional open method of repair, went on to live a very productive life.

He initiated the use of multiple therapies for treatment of peripheral arteries including angioplasty, stenting and atherectomy. Dr Kirksey was intimately involved in the education and training of General Surgery and Podiatric trainees and continued to author papers.

With the sale of The Graduate Hospital to The University of Pennsylvania, so ended a chapter in this career and a new period was opened with a move to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center of The University of Pennsylvanian Health Care System.

PENN Medicine is a $2.9 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Penn's School of Medicine is ranked #2 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #3 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report's most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System includes three hospitals, all of which have received numerous national patient-care honors [Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center]; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home care and hospice

Currently, Dr Kirksey has recently partnered with The Foxhollow company to promote the worthwhile campaign to "Eliminate Leg Amputation" If left untreated, PAD can progress to critical limb ischemia (CLI), which occurs when there is not enough oxygenated blood being delivered to the leg to keep the tissue alive. An estimated 750,000 people in the United States suffer from CLI, which occurs when symptoms of PAD—including pain, non-healing wounds, tissue loss or gangrene—become more severe.¹

When CLI develops, it can lead to constant pain and even amputation of toes, feet and/or part of the leg. Within one year of the onset of CLI, 25% of patients will die and another 25% will require major amputation. Last year, over 150,000 amputations were performed in the U.S. and Europe, with a 40% mortality rate at two years post-amputation.¹

The SilverHawk™ Plaque Excision System provides the possibility of helping patients who suffer from CLI avoid amputation.

He empahtically states, "The worst part of being a vascular surgeon is when a patient presents with gangrene that is to severe to save their leg. When this occurs, we have to perform an amputation of their leg either at the Below Knee or Above Knee level". Many times it may be preventable if we can identify the patient at an earlier stage. PAD (Peripheral Arterial Disease) is a "silent killer". You may not realize you have it until your circulation is so poor that you begin to develop sores ie gangrene. But this can often be prevented if we ask a few questions (see survey)

1) Do your legs cramp in the thighs or calves when you walk for one, two or three blocks. If so you may have intermittent claudication, an early form of PAD

2) Do you experience pain in the toes and feet that wakes you up at night. You may have PAD

3)Do you have a history of blockages in your heart vessels, a history of Stroke, Diabetes, Hypertension, Obesity or Kidney disease? These are all risk factors for PAD

If we can identify this problem early, then we can take special measures to control your blood pressure, cholesterol, cease smoking, control diabetes and this may prevent progression. And if we cannot prevent progression, if we follow your symptoms closely, then we can intervene when your symptoms become dangerous. The key is early Identification!

PAD occurs disproportionately in minority groups that are affected by important risk factors like Hypertension, High Cholesterol and Diabetes to name a few but not all.

For various social and economic reasons, these people tend to have the problem diagnosed later, the appropriate treatment started later and are more likely to lose their legs from this process.

Besides the obvious tragedy of losing ones legs, the emotional trauma that occurs with self image and depression that frequently occurs, a host of other consequences exist. There is an immediate loss of independence. One may be incapable of performing their previous job. Think of this, your entire home would immediately have to be renovated to accommodate the changes in living logistics.

Here’s the solution. Ask questions? What are my risk factors? Request that an ankle brachial index (ABI) be performed. And seek early referral to a specialist familiar with treatment options for PAD. Remember referral to a specialist does not mean that a procedure may necessarily need to be done, but it does mean that a person familiar with all your treatment options will evaluate the problem. This is a "Silent problem".

Dr Kirksey is currently the Medical Director of Wound Care at The Wound Care Center of The University of Pennsylvania. His duties range from the care of patients suffering from PAD, chronic wounds from diabetes and venous disease. At the administrative level he will serve as a liason between clinical staff, hospital administration and wound care facility management team.

Dr Kirksey is also Medical Director of The Philadelphia Access Center which is an imaging center dedicated to the management and maintenance of arteriovenous access sites in patients suffering from End Stage Renal Disease. Care of the End Stage Dialysis patient costs the federal government more than $12 billion per year. The Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (DOQI) committee was created to study, develop and implement strategies to manage these escalating costs. One area of tremendous health care cost is the maintenance of dialysis access sites in the individual patient. Studies have conclusively proven that the choice of access autogenous fistula over prosthetic bridge graft can significantly decrease the durability of the access site and decrease costly procedures and hospitalizations. Furthermore, in many studies, maintenance of a patent access with diligent surveillance is proving to produce similar improvements in outcomes.

Chronic Renal Disease care is also confronted with the dilemma of racial disparity in patient outcomes. This disease is disproportionately higher in American Indians, Pacific Islanders and African-Americans.

On the entrepreneurial level, Dr Kirksey is co-founder of The Institute for Advanced Skincare and Optimal Health. The facility was built on the philosophy of "Inner Health, Outer Beauty" Most skincare facilities treat the skin only, in complete exclusion of the multiple other factors that directly affect the skin’s appearance. Medically speaking, the skin is the largest organ of the body and is merely a manifestation of what is going on inside the body. We know that simple measures such as increasing our water intake and altering our dietary habits can greatly impact the skin’s appearance.

This integrated approach to our body is described as Age Management Medicine, a fascinating new area of medicine that takes the ultimate medical goal of prevention one step farther. It suggests that even though you may not be ill, you may be able to live in a more optimally healthy state. We are refuting the traditional concept of medical care whose minimal goal is to "Fix it when its Broken".

The components of the evaluation process include diet, nutrition, supplement, exercise, stress management and hormone optimization.

"The response introducing this concept to the masses has been tremendous. We’re able to change the paradigm of how medicine is practiced and what people expect from their physicians." "The process allows us to do health consultations and assessments remotely so that we no longer have to be face to face to alter the health process of an individual. Through various medium, we can take care of a client in California with the identical degree of efficacy."

Our new online site, www.OptimalHealthToday.com is a resource for personal development information. All of the components of personal Health and Wellness are represented including Advanced Skincare, Age Management Medicine, Men and Women’s Health, Personal Training, Personal Finance and many, many more. "Right now many people look at our facility as their local resource for Health and Wellness but now we’ll be able to offer a more extensive line of service to a global client."