Surgical specialty
Vascular Surgery (Integrated): Salary, Residency & Career Guide
Operative, endovascular and longitudinal management of arterial, venous and dialysis access disease.
Typical Training
5 years
Five-year integrated vascular surgery route; an independent route follows general surgery.
Attending Compensation
$600,520
Average Total Compensation
Employment outlook
Not isolated
Projected Job Growth
Relative Competitiveness Index
55 / 100
Moderate
Start in Medical School
M1 to M4 Preparation
Practical experience, projects and rotation planning.
See the Medical School RoadmapAttending Compensation and State Wages
U.S. Attending Compensation
$600,520
Average Total Compensation
BLS does not publish a separately matched state wage series for this specialty.
Resident Pay by Institution
Five-year integrated vascular surgery route; an independent route follows general surgery..
2026–27 salaries, five published training-institution examples.
Selected institution
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
$77,049/ year
Pay varies by institution and postgraduate year.
Schedules and Work Setting
Schedule and Call
Limb-salvage clinic and elective vascular work can be planned, but ruptured aneurysms, acute ischemia and bleeding vascular access generate unpredictable call.
Practice Settings
Vascular operating rooms, catheter-based suites, limb salvage clinics and inpatient consult services.
Procedures and Clinical Work
- Endovascular stenting
- Aneurysm repair
- Limb revascularization
- Dialysis access surgery
Fellowship Training
Fellowship Expectation Index
1 / 5
Fellowship Options
Common Fellowship Duration: 0–1 year(s) beyond residency. Integrated training already covers core vascular practice; selected advanced endovascular training is optional.
Integrated vascular residency already trains physicians in core open and endovascular vascular surgery; additional fellowship is not a routine separate requirement.
Direct Practice
Open and endovascular vascular surgery after integrated training.
Specialized Practice
Highly specialized aortic or complex endovascular practices may offer further focused training.
Choosing a Path
Compare open cases, chronic wound care and endovascular autonomy during residency selection.
Potential Fellowship Pathways
- Complex aortic surgery
- Advanced endovascular intervention
- Vascular research pathways
Preparing in M1 Through M4
A vascular surgeon may see the same patient in clinic, catheter lab, OR, wound care and postoperative surveillance. Follow one limb salvage pathway end to end.
Research or QI
A diabetic limb salvage audit, endovascular radiation exposure study or graft surveillance project connects procedure choices to outcomes.
Common Mistake
Reducing vascular surgery to catheter work and ignoring wound care, chronic limb-threatening ischemia and emergency call.
Preparation by Year
- 1Shadow both an endovascular case and outpatient limb salvage follow-up.
- 2Clarify five-year integrated training versus an independent vascular surgery fellowship after general surgery.
Ask a resident this: How do residents divide their time among open surgery, endovascular cases, vascular lab and outpatient wound follow-up?
MD vs DO Match Outcomes
77 of 87 matched to their preferred specialty
8 of 9 matched to their preferred specialty
MD vs DO difference: -0.4 percentage points
Applicant Considerations
The 2024 DO vascular surgery sample contained very few applicants. A percentage based on nine DO seniors is a weak guide to future outcomes.
DO Application Strategy
Find a vascular surgery mentor and review direct-integrated programs individually; verify whether programs have successfully trained DO applicants.
Job Outlook
N/A
Projected Employment Growth
2025 to 2035, BLS occupational projection
No distinct employment forecast is published for this exact specialty.
AI and the Specialty
Potential Workflow Changes
Image-based planning and vessel segmentation may improve; urgent revascularization and longitudinal wound care remain clinical.
Sources & Data Notes
Reviewed . National attending compensation uses Doximity's 2026 specialty survey (2025 pay) where available, then verified specialty-specific Medscape, Marit or Salary.com estimates. Doximity, Medscape and Marit report total compensation; Salary.com models base salary. Survey averages, modeled salaries and BLS wage medians measure different populations and must not be interpreted as identical metrics. BLS May 2025 state wages are shown separately and exclude self-employed physicians. The ophthalmology BLS category excludes pediatric ophthalmologists. State figures may be missing, top-coded, or suppressed. Job outlook uses BLS 2025–2035 occupational projections; it is not a local vacancy forecast. Resident stipend examples reflect published institutional scales for 2026 to 2027, by postgraduate year, not specialty. Stanford includes housing in its reported base salary; other institutions handle allowances differently.
The Relative Competitiveness Index uses a fixed score of 25 plus 1.75 times the 2024 U.S. MD preferred-specialty unmatched percentage, rounded, then applies the same 1.225 multiplier to every specialty. Neurological Surgery is 98/100; the score is not the applicant's chance of matching. It is not a 2026 estimate or DO-specific score. The MD and DO percentages compare different unadjusted applicant cohorts who ranked that specialty first. They do not account for application strategy, program selection, scores, or geography. Ophthalmology and urology have separate specialty match processes; other pathways may lack suitable NRMP cohorts.
The 1–5 Fellowship Expectation Index is an editorial assessment of customary career paths, not a measured participation rate or requirement. For residency profiles, compact training labels put specialty years before the clinical base or preliminary year; e.g. 3+1 means three specialty years and one clinical base year, even though the clinical year comes first. Fellowship-defined careers are presented in the separate fellowship explorer. Schedules, procedural scope, preparation suggestions, and potential AI effects depend on the program and practice setting; they are qualitative descriptions, not guaranteed outcomes or forecasts of physician replacement.
For Vascular Surgery (Integrated): Doximity 2026, Average Total Compensation, reported under “Vascular Surgery.” The national estimate must not be treated as a state-specific compensation figure.
Vascular Surgery (Integrated): Editorial estimate of how fellowship shapes a career path. No observed fellowship uptake percentage is implied. Specialty-specific roadmaps describe illustrative activities, not mandatory publication, shadowing-hour, rotation, or skill requirements. Common fellowship routes: Integrated training already covers core vascular practice; selected advanced endovascular training is optional.