Type of Surgery
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Last updated: 11/24/2009
Physicians often have specially trained assistants for vascular procedures. These assistants may be nurses, surgical technicians, or x ray specialists. Cardiac catheterization laboratories will include someone specially trained in monitoring EKG equipment...
and vital signs. Either a nurse, nurse anesthetist, or anesthesiologist will administer sedation or anesthesia for the procedure.
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Sometimes used interchangeably, coronary angioplasty and stenting are actually two separate procedures. This video shows how coronary angioplasty and stenting are performed and how the two procedures differ.
During angioplasty, a catheter is fed into the femoral artery of the upper leg (A). The catheter is fed up to coronary arteries to an area of blockage (B). A dye is released, allowing visualization of the blockage (C). A stent is placed on the balloon-tipped catheter. The balloon is inflated, opening the artery (D). The stent holds the artery open after the catheter is removed (E). (Illustration by Argosy.)
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Angioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel; typically as a result of atherosclerosis. Tightly folded balloons are passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times normal blood pressure (6 to 20 atmospheres).
The word is composed of the medical combining forms of the Greek words αγγειος aggeîos meaning "vessel" and πλαστός plastós meaning "formed" or "moulded". Angioplasty has come to include all manner of vascular interventions typically performed in a minimally invasive or percutaneous method.
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Traditional Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery has undesirable side effects that range from cognitive loss to increased hospital stays that are believed to be related to artificial heart pumps. In this project, we believe that if the heart were able to beat freely during surgery, these pumps would not be needed and it is possible that these side effects might be lessened.
-M. Cenk Cavusoglu
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