A nonsurgical procedure designed to dilate (widen or expand) narrowed coronary arteries. It works as follows:
First, a doctor inserts a thin plastic tube (a catheter) into an artery in your arm or leg. He or she then guides this catheter to the aorta (the large artery that conducts blood from the heart to the rest of the body). From there it passes into the coronary arteries.
As the doctor guides the catheter to the coronary arteries, the procedure is monitored by a special x-ray camera called a fluoroscope. Once the catheter is passed into the narrowed coronary artery, a second, smaller catheter with a balloon on its’ tip is passed through the first catheter. You can think of this as one “pipe” passed through another.
As this second catheter is passed through the first, the balloon remains deflated; however, once the balloon tip reaches the narrowed part of the coronary artery, it’s inflated. When the balloon is inflated, it compresses the plaque and enlarges the diameter of the opening within the blood vessel. After that, the balloon is deflated and the catheters are withdrawn.
The result of this procedure is that the blood vessel is dilated, and blood can flow more easily through the (formerly narrowed) part of the coronary artery.
In some situations, a small hollow tube made of metal mesh, called a stent, is used to keep the blood vessel open after a balloon angioplasty. There are new types of stents, called drug-eluting stents, that are coated with immunosuppressants that are slowly released and help keep the blood vessel from reclosing. These new stents, a sirolimus-eluting stent (Cypher) and a paclitaxel-eluting stent (Taxus), have shown some promise for improving the long-term success of this procedure.
First, a doctor inserts a thin plastic tube (a catheter) into an artery in your arm or leg. He or she then guides this catheter to the aorta (the large artery that conducts blood from the heart to the rest of the body). From there it passes into the coronary arteries.
As the doctor guides the catheter to the coronary arteries, the procedure is monitored by a special x-ray camera called a fluoroscope. Once the catheter is passed into the narrowed coronary artery, a second, smaller catheter with a balloon on its’ tip is passed through the first catheter. You can think of this as one “pipe” passed through another.
As this second catheter is passed through the first, the balloon remains deflated; however, once the balloon tip reaches the narrowed part of the coronary artery, it’s inflated. When the balloon is inflated, it compresses the plaque and enlarges the diameter of the opening within the blood vessel. After that, the balloon is deflated and the catheters are withdrawn.
The result of this procedure is that the blood vessel is dilated, and blood can flow more easily through the (formerly narrowed) part of the coronary artery.
In some situations, a small hollow tube made of metal mesh, called a stent, is used to keep the blood vessel open after a balloon angioplasty. There are new types of stents, called drug-eluting stents, that are coated with immunosuppressants that are slowly released and help keep the blood vessel from reclosing. These new stents, a sirolimus-eluting stent (Cypher) and a paclitaxel-eluting stent (Taxus), have shown some promise for improving the long-term success of this procedure.