Coronary Angioplasty

What is a Balloon Angioplasty?

Balloon angioplasty is the procedure for the expansion of narrowing arteries by inflating specially-designed balloons for a short period inside the narrow area in the arteries. The balloon angioplasty procedure may be applied on more than one narrowing in the same artery or on the narrowing found in more than one artery during the same application or different applications. In some cases, in addition to the balloon, stents may also be implanted into the same area with the assistance of the balloons.

What is a Stent?

Stents are small and usually made of Stainless Steel or Chrome Cobalt tubes with different cage designs. The narrowing in the arteries hampers blood flow and Stents are used for the treatment of these narrowing areas. Sometimes they may be implanted after the expansion of the narrowing via a balloon and sometimes are mounted directly on to the narrowing area.

Stents have revolutionized the treatment of heart and artery diseases. Previously, all patients that had significant artery narrowing underwent surgical operations. However, currently the number of the patients undergoing surgical operations has decreased significantly. When the factors of death, time away from work and disability rates of the surgical operations are compared with the comfort of the balloons-stents in terms of the patient’s 1 day of stay in hospital and returning to normal life in a couple of days, the positive impact of the balloon or stent angioplasty in the patient’s recovery can be easily observed. Nonetheless, there are times when – without doubt –  bypass surgery is a necessity. Even though the technology and experience have reached a very good point at the moment, the balloon and stent operation may not be suitable for all patients with significant narrowing in the heart vessels; and in such cases, bypass surgery may be recommended to patients when it is necessary.