Advancements made in the field of cardiology and heart surgery over the past few years in the medical industry is astonishing that rebirth of a person with the weakest heart is indeed possible. Thanks to the innovations in the surgical technologies that many patients are successfully saved from life-threatening heart ailments. One among those life sucking heart diseases is the Coronary Artery Disease(CAD). In this, we have provided information about angioplasty and stents and the need for them.
What are heart angioplasty and stent placement?
Angioplasty is a procedure done to open the narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. These blood vessels are called the coronary arteries.
A stent is a small, metal mesh tube that can be placed inside a coronary artery and it expands inside the artery. It can be placed during or immediately after angioplasty. As it could expand inside the artery, it helps prevent the artery from closing up or getting blocked again.
What is the need for heart angioplasty and stent placement?
The angioplasty and stent placements are the common procedures that are done to open the arteries that are clogged. Arteries are the blood vessels that supply oxygen-rich blood from the heart to other parts of your body. Whereas coronary arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart, especially the right side of the heart muscles. When the walls of the coronary arteries are obstructed with plaque, a layer of fatty substances it restricts the blood flowing inside the arteries.
What Happens During Angioplasty?
Firstly cardiac catheterization procedure is done to diagnose inside the artery if there is any blockage. Medications will be given to relax you, then the doctor will numb your groin area. A long, narrow, hollow tube called a catheter is inserted through the sheath and a blood vessel to the arteries surrounding the heart.
A small amount of contrast liquid is injected into your blood vessel through the catheter. At this stage, It’s photographed with an X-ray as it moves through your heart's chambers, valves, and major vessels. Analyzing these pictures, doctors can tell if your coronary arteries are narrowed and if they are functioning properly.
If the doctor decides to perform angioplasty surgery, he will move the catheter into the artery. A small balloon at the end of the catheter is inflated, thereby widening the blocked artery. After the artery is stretched, the balloon is deflated and removed. The balloon is thus inflated and deflated several times before it is removed stretching the artery a bit more each time. This is done in order to clear the blockage and improve the flow of blood in the blood vessels.
What are stents?
Stents are small metal mesh tube that acts as a scaffold to support the inside of your coronary artery and helps to keep the coronary artery open. A balloon catheter which is placed over a guide wire puts the stent into your narrowed coronary artery. Once it reaches the spot, this balloon is inflated, and the stent expands to the size of the artery and holds it open. The balloon is then deflated and removed while the stent stays in place. Your artery begins to heal around the stent after several weeks of time. It can also be made of a material that the body absorbs over time.
Medicines can also be embedded inside these stents which are known as drug-eluting stents. They are designed to reduce the risk of the artery getting blocked again in the future. Only the doctor will able to decide if this is the right stent for your blockage.
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Thank you for sharing such important information about Angioplasty and Stents. Your way of narrating the blog post and way of using medical terms, yet explaining in the simplest way is something I was impressed with. Great work, looking forward to more blogs.
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