For more info about Elliot Vascular Surgery and Dr. Abdu, visit www.elliothospital.org/providers/robert-abdu-do
Robert Abdu, D.O., a vascular surgeon, is joining the staff at Elliot Vascular Surgery and is accepting new patients.
He earned a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. He also earned a Master of Arts in medical science at the Boston University School of Medicine and a B.A. in biology from the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Abdu completed a general surgery residency at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., and a vascular surgery fellowship at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Penn.
“I was first drawn to vascular surgery when I was a third-year medical student,” he says. “I really loved the ability to treat somebody and help them almost instantaneously instead of waiting for a medication that may take months or years to really have a good effect. I can sort of change the trajectory of someone’s medical issues very quickly in a course of hours.”
As a vascular surgeon, Dr. Abdu is especially interested in treating peripheral vascular disease and aneurysms throughout the body.
He says the availability of minimally invasive surgery “has totally changed the game. There’s very little pain and it’s a very durable, wonderful approach for a lot of people who maybe didn’t want surgery or weren’t healthy enough for surgery initially.”
Dr. Abdu’s ideal patient-provider relationship is one in which the patient is invested in their own care. “The relationship with our patients is a two-way street,” he says. “It really helps to spend time with them, to listen to them, to understand where they’re coming from, what their goals are and help educate them about the vascular problems they might have so they can be involved in sort of designing their own treatment plan.”
When away from work, he spends time with his family on a family farm in New Hampshire and flies his own plane. He also loves to sail, fly fish, tie his own flies and travel all over the country for fly fishing.