Angioplasty
Angioplasty is another medical treatment where doctors use a balloon to stretch open a blocked or a narrowed artery. However these days, modern science and developments in the procedure has led to involve inserting a short wire-mesh tube, generally referred to as stent, in to a narrowed artery during the procedure. Further, to allow a free flow of blood, the stent is placed in the artery on a permanent basis.
Angioplasty has proved as a boon in medical science as it’s seen in most of the cases where patients’ condition significantly improves after the procedure and they’re able to carry out more work in their routine than they could before the procedure. The reason being, the blood flow through the arteries improves after inserting a stent thereby leading to an improvement in health.
What are the risks?
All medical procedures come with a certain amount of risk. Just like many other types of invasive procedures, you may have an allergic reaction to the anesthetic, the dye, or some of the materials used in the angioplasty. Some other risks associated with coronary angioplasty include:
- bleeding, clotting, or bruising at the point of insertion.
- scar tissue or blood clots forming in the stent.
- an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia.
- damage to a blood vessel, heart valve, or artery.
- a heart attack.
- kidney damage, especially in people who have preexisting kidney problems.
- an infection
Dr. Omkar S. Thopte
MD (Medicine), DNB (Cardiology) Fellow Interventional Cardiology (Sri Sathya Sai Institute, Banglore-Cleveland Clinic, USA)
