Diagnostic tests and procedures Computer tomography angiography (CTA) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) take pictures of your blood vessels. These tests may give your provider more information about the flow of blood and whether arteries are narrowed or have aneurysms.
Chest pain (angina) that worsens when you engage in physical activities. Shortness of breath that accompanies physical activity. Chest pain that doesn't improve when you've taken medication or made lifestyle changes.
By clinical guidelines, an artery should be clogged at least 70 percent before a stent should be placed, Resar said. "A 50 percent blockage doesn't need to be stented," he said.
Cardiac stent procedures were most commonly performed among patients aged 65 to 84 years old for both sexes—and were rare among patients under the age of 45.
The procedure may take place right after the arteriogram, which is used to find the blockage, or it may occur the next day. You may need to stay in the hospital two or three days.
Stenting is a minimally invasive procedure, meaning it is not considered major surgery. Stents can be made of metal mesh, fabric, silicone, or combinations of materials. Stents used for coronary arteries are made of metal mesh. Fabric stents, also called stent grafts, are used in larger arteries such as the aorta.
A bile duct stent is also known as a biliary stent. It is usually inserted using an endoscope passed through the mouth, stomach and duodenum until it reaches the bile duct. You may have this procedure as an outpatient or stay in hospital for 1–2 days.
Along with these two critical components, follow your cardiologist's advice and take your prescribed medicines on time to manage your blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. As a result, even after implanting stents in three major coronary arteries, if correctly controlled, you can live a long life.
A narrowing or blockage in the LAD is more serious than narrowing or blockage in the other arteries. Bypass surgery usually is the best choice for a blocked LAD. If the LAD is not blocked, and there are no other complicating factors, stents are more likely to be used, even if both of the other arteries are blocked.
Atherosclerosis, which causes diseases of the arteries, is a very common process. One of the biggest risk factors for atherosclerosis is age, so it is more common among people in their 60s and 70s, although there are many elderly people who don't have significant atherosclerosis.
The use of stents has been growing continuously beyond these indications, and today stents are a ubiquitous routine in interventional cardiology. Although stenting is technically more difficult than standard PTCA, it can be achieved with a high primary success rate (94% to 97%).
CT can also be used during follow-up to detect long-term complications such as in-stent stenosis, intimal hyperplasia, stent displacement and aneurysm formation [2].
Usually, patients stay overnight and return home the day after the procedure. Some may even go home the same day. The amount of time that you stay in the hospital will depend on if there were any difficulties during the procedure and how well the catheter insertion site is healing.
An estimated two million people get coronary artery stents every year, and if you have coronary artery disease, there is a good chance your doctor will suggest you get one.
Driving after a heart attack and a stent
If you had a heart attack and a stent (angioplasty) at the same time, you should not drive for at least two weeks.
Just after the procedure
Once your blood pressure, pulse, and breathing are stable and you are alert, you may be taken to the intensive care unit (ICU) or a regular hospital room. If the sheath was left in the insertion site, it will be taken out of the groin or arm at the right time.
Stent placement usually takes 30 minutes to two hours, but the preparation and recovery time may add several hours. This procedure is usually performed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Check with your doctor about the details of your procedure.
You might feel pressure in the area where the catheter is inserted. You may also feel some mild discomfort when the balloon is inflated and your artery is stretched, but typically you shouldn't feel any sharp pain during the procedure.
You will be awake during the procedure. The doctor will use live x-ray pictures to carefully guide the catheter up into your heart and arteries. Liquid contrast (sometimes called "dye," will be injected into your body to highlight blood flow through the arteries.
You will need to take medicines to prevent a blood clot from forming in the stent. You may need to take other medicines as well. Resume normal physical activity and return to work when your provider says it's okay. For most people, this can happen within a few days to a week.
For a non-emergency coronary stent procedure, the recovery time is typically around a week. However, an emergency procedure may require a recovery time of several weeks to more than a month.