Mid-South Surgeons

Board Certified Vascular and General Surgeons

The Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons in Columbia, Tennessee, was originally founded in 1990 by Dr. James Richardson, a Board Certified General Surgeon and Board Certified Vascular Surgeon, with a goal of treating Columbia area patients with dignity and compassionate care.

Today, The Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons is a practice with four Board Certified Surgeons specializing in General Surgery and Vascular Surgery, and our resident physician’s assistant.  We are still committed to providing a comfortable and compassionate location for patients in need of a wide range of surgical procedures.

What is a General Surgical Practice?

In the General Surgical practice, highly trained board certified surgeons focus on the abdominal organs of the body. Some of the common issues are appendicitis, hernias, gallbladder, stomach and intestines. A General Surgeon will have completed four years of Medical School, earning the Medical Doctorate (MD) and then they will spend an additional five years in a Surgical Internship or Residency program.

Since General Surgeons must become competent in a large number of types of surgeries, most Internships or Residencies will take place in large metropolitan cities with large hospitals.

Once a General Surgery Internship is completed, some surgeons, as they have at The Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons, will add an additional study in order to become Vascular Surgeons (an additional two years of Fellowship) or Breast Surgeons (an additional one year of Fellowship) or Surgeons proficient in Minimally Invasive Surgery (an additional one year of Fellowship).

What is a Vascular Surgical Practice?

In the Vascular Surgical practice board certified surgeons are focused on the way in which blood travels through the body. Because blood contains oxygen, the food for your body, and takes garbage out of your tissues to remove it, it is important that blood is traveling efficiently. What we do know is that every minute of every day your heart sends a single droplet of your blood on a complete circuit through your body. When you stand, sit or move around the tubes that your blood is flowing through (the veins and arteries) have to adjust. And these tubes have to adjust to other changes you make like weight gain or pregnancy. Over time and with changes the veins and arteries can become less elastic and begin to sag. This allows blood to pool and can make it inefficient in getting a full circuit in a single minute.
Sagging veins can become painful and they can even become dangerous for patients. The good news is that Vascular Surgeons can help most people eliminate saggy veins. And, with today’s technology, many times the surgery can be done in an outpatient setting.

Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons – Vascular Lab

The Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons has its own dedicated Vascular Procedure Lab which allows patients to gain access to non-invasive ultrasound diagnostic care conducted by staff with Registered Venous Technology training. The Vascular Lab is available to our own patients for a number of diagnostic tests, but to individuals (with or without a physician referral) who have concerns and want to check for carotid stenosis, aortic aneurysms and extremity blood flow.

The Vascular Lab of The Surgical Clinic at Mid-South Surgeons conducts the following diagnostic tests: