Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 11/24/2009
An angioplasty is done to reopen a partially blocked blood vessel so that blood can flow through it again at a normal rate. In patients with an occlusive vascular disease such as atherosclerosis, the flow of blood to other organs or remote parts of...
the body is limited by the narrowing of the vessel's lumen due to fatty deposits or patches known as plaque. Once the vessel has been widened, an adequate blood flow is restored. The vessel may narrow again over time at the same location, however, and the procedure may need to be repeated.
For some patients, thrombolytic therapy (treatment with drugs that dissolve blood clots) is an alternative to angioplasty. Many medical centers, in fact, restrict the use of angioplasty to patients who cannot be treated with thrombolytic therapy.
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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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Other Information
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.
Other Information
From 1979–2005, the total number of inpatient cardiovascular operations and procedures increased 484 percent to 6,989,000 annually. (AHA computation.)
From: AHA computation
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