LEWISTON — “Innovations in Vascular Disease – Part 1: Treatment of Carotid Artery Disease” is the topic of a Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute Mini-Medical School educational program set for 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, at the Central Maine Medical Center School of Nursing and Health Professions, 70 Middle St.

Vascular surgeon Michael Ricci, M.D., and endovascular surgeon April Nedeau, M.D., will discuss the surgical treatment of carotid artery disease.

The carotid arteries are two main blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain. The arteries may become obstructed with plaque comprised mostly of fat and cholesterol. When the carotid arteries become too obstructed, a stroke can result.

Ricci is chief of vascular surgery at the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute in Lewiston. He was recently appointed to the Society for Vascular Surgery’s Clinical Practice Council. Prior to joining the greater Lewiston-Auburn medical community last year, he practiced at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt. He also provided consultative services at Alice Hyde Hospital in Malone, N.Y., and Canton-Potsdam Hospital in Potsdam, N.Y.

He is a colonel in Air National Guard and was recently appointed state air surgeon for the Vermont Air National Guard. (State air surgeon is the top physician position in each state’s Air National Guard.) He has served with the Green Mountain Boys since 2003, most recently as commander of the 158th Medical Group. He has twice deployed to Balad, Iraq, and once to Bagram, Afghanistan, where he served as a flight surgeon and a vascular and trauma surgeon in Air Force theater hospitals.

Nedeau earned her medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine in Boston. She served an internship and residency in general surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in vascular biology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Harrison Surgical Research Department, also in Philadelphia. She recently completed fellowship training in vascular and endovascular surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. She has extensive research experience and has authored or co-authored numerous scholarly articles on various clinical topics.

Interpreter services are available upon advance request.

Anyone wishing to register for any of the programs, or seeking more information, is urged to visit www.cmmc.org/events, call 795-8448 or email prevention@cmhc.org

The program is the third in a series of six presentations being sponsored by CMHVI as part of its yearlong 10th anniversary celebration.