What Is a Therapeutic Cardiac Catheterization Procedure?
If your physician has detected coronary heart disease during diagnostic cardiac catheterization, he or she may recommend non-surgical options, like coronary angioplasty (or balloon angioplasty) to open narrowed arteries.
You will prepare for balloon angioplasty in much the same way as with diagnostic cardiac catheterization: a local anesthetic is injected and a small incision is made (usually in the femoral artery.) The balloon catheter is inserted through another guiding catheter; once in position, your physician will slowly inflate the balloon, located at the tip of the catheter. The inflated balloon stretches the artery and flattens the plaque against the artery’s wall. The balloon is then deflated and pulled out. The larger opening in the artery now allows improved blood flow to the heart.
Although angioplasty is successful in most cases, it also can have limitations and sometimes the blockage in the artery may recur; this is known as restenosis. To help prevent the artery from closing off, your doctor may decide to implant a stent. A coronary stent is a small device that is placed in the artery to keep it open after angioplasty. (In some cases, a stent can be implanted without first doing an angioplasty or at the same time the angioplasty is performed.) Stents are like tiny metal scaffolds that provide support to the artery’s walls. Typically, a stent is about half-an-inch long and weighs as little as a straight pin. The stent is a permanent implant that will remain in your artery.
Patients undergoing stent procedures at Montgomery will have access to the newest drug-eluting stent, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. Drug-eluting stents have been shown in clinical studies to reduce the rate of re-blockage that can occur with uncoated stents.
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