Coronary Angioplasty Procedure

Angioplasty surgery can be done as an elective procedure to open a blocked artery that could cause heart attack or as a life saving procedure for people having a heart attack.

What Is Coronary Angioplasty?

A tube is passed into the narrowed part of your blocked artery, and then a wire with a deflated balloon is sent through the catheter to the blockage or narrowing. The balloon is inflated, compressing the deposits against your artery walls. A mesh tube (stent) may be left in the artery to help keep the artery open. Drug-eluding stents slowly release medication to help keep the artery open. Your cardiologist will determine which type of angioplasty procedure is best for you.

Coronary Angioplasty may also be called by any of the following names:

• Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)
• Percutaneous intervention
• Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty
• Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA)
• Balloon angioplasty
• Coronary artery angioplasty

Cornary Angioplasty may be used to:

• Improve symptoms of CAD, such as angina and shortness of breath.
• Reduce damage to the heart muscle from a heart attack. A heart attack occurs when blood flow through a coronary artery is completely blocked. Angioplasty can be performed during or within a few hours of a heart attack to open the blockage and restore blood flow through the artery.
• Reduce the risk of death in some patients.

Angioplasty can also be used when other interventions, including lifestyle change (following a healthy diet, quitting smoking, and getting more physical activity) and/or medications fail to minimize the severity of heart disease and associated symptoms. In determining whether coronary angioplasty is appropriate for you, the doctor/cardiologist will weigh several factors including severity and location of your blockages, along with other diseases you may have. Angioplasty is often used when there is less severe narrowing or blockage in your arteries, and when the blockage can be reached during the procedure.

Cornary Angioplasty also is used as an emergency procedure during a heart attack. Plaque that has built up in the coronary arteries can burst, creating a blood clot that, if it grows large enough, can mostly or completely block blood flow to part of the heart muscle. Quickly opening such a blockage reduces damage to the heart and restores blood flow to the heart muscle during a heart attack. Since angioplasty works so quickly, it is often the best approach during a heart attack.

Before coronary angioplasty is done, your doctor/cardiologist will need to know whether your coronary arteries are blocked and, if one or more are blocked, where and how severe the artery blockages are. This is done by taking an angiogram. Once your condition has been evaluated, the angioplasty is done by blowing up (inflating) the balloon in the blockage, pushing the plaque outward against the artery wall to open the artery and improve blood flow.

How Do I Prepare for Coronary Angioplasty?

• Your doctor will advise you whether or not you should fast before the angioplasty procedure. Often you have to stop eating or drinking by midnight the night before the procedure and what medicines you should and shouldn't take on the day of the angioplasty.
• You will be contacted 1-2 days before your procedure by a nurse from the Catheterization Lab who will review instructions with you including when you should arrive at the hospital.

Angioplasty takes only an hour or two, but you may need to remain in the hospital overnight.

If you are having an angioplasty procedure you will be contacted prior to the procedure by a member of the team who will give you detailed instructions on how to prepare.

What Should I Expect During the Angioplasty Procedure?

• You will be placed on the procedure table and an intravenous (IV) line will be placed in your arm for the provision of fluids and medication to relax you and prevent blood clots from forming.
• The area where the catheter will be inserted, usually the arm or groin (upper thigh), will be clipped, then cleaned to make it germ- free, then numbed.
• You will be given pain medication and sedation as needed.
• You will be awake during the procedure.
• A small cut is made in your arm or groin and a tube (called a sheath) is inserted, through which a very thin guide wire is threaded. It goes through the artery in your arm or groin toward the area of the coronary artery that's blocked. A catheter is inserted through the sheath, to slide it over the guide wire and up to the heart. The physician directs the catheter to the blockage, removing the guide wire once it is in position.
• A small amount of dye may be injected through the catheter into the bloodstream to help show the blockage on x ray. This x-ray picture of the heart is called an angiogram.
• Next, your doctor slides a tube with a small deflated balloon inside it through the catheter and into the coronary artery where the blockage is. When the tube reaches the blockage, the balloon is inflated. The balloon pushes the plaque against the wall of the artery to widen it. This helps to increase the flow of blood to the heart.
• The balloon is then deflated. Sometimes the balloon is inflated and deflated more than once to widen the artery. The balloon and tube are then removed.

For more information or to make an appointment please call 1-203-276-4777.

For more information or to make an appointment please call
1-877-233-WELL (9355).