what is the success rate for someone going in for angioplasty?

Question

Also, what is the success rate for a stint being put into their heart valve?

Answer 1

The stent is a small mesh-like tube that is deployed to the inside of your coronary artery. A balloon is advanced the where the lesion exists, then inflated, essentially crushing the plaque open. A stent is then deployed to the area to keep it open.

If the lesion is amenable to angioplasty then they are very successful - it is rare that an attempt to deploy a stent is made and can not be done, or a complication intercedes. On the other hand there can be lesions that can not be reached, completely blocked, or in a vessel or place in a vessel that would not improve your condition or heart function. In those cases, often no intervention is performed.

It is a very common procedure that has very few down sides and many up sides. I have seen patients come back a week after the procedure and say "I haven't felt this good in 20 years." The results can be really dramatic.

Good luck and good health. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Angioplasty is a procedure done under local anaesthesia. We get to the blood vessel supplying blood to the heart muscle and remove blockages in the arteries supplying blood to the heart. There are three major arteries and branches supplying blood to the heart. When these blood vessels become narrow or blocked by deposits, the blood supply to the heart is reduced. When blood supply goes down, it usually produces what we call angina or pain in the heart. This is usually precipitated by exertion. Some groups of patients may not have the same symptoms. These are called cases of silent ischaemia. It goes unnoticed. Stress tests are commonly used to detect ischaemia. The confirmation is done by angiogram. When the arteries are blocked completely, they can produce heart attacks. In angioplasty, we try to remove these blockages in order to re-establish the blood flow. Patients can usually get back to normal activity in three or four days. When angioplasty was started and only the plain balloon was used, the balloon was used to compress the blockages. The occurrence of re-narrowing at the same site was found to be between 30 and 35 per cent. Compared to surgery, this was definitely a higher recurrence rate. But today, the regular use of newer devices, mainly the stent, has altered long-term results remarkably. If the patient repeats angiography after six months can get the long-term benefits. This has provided us with information that shows that in respect of arteries where we used the stent judiciously with or without atherectomy, the long-term benefit was 88 to 90 per cent. The experience of the operator is an important factor in consistently good long-term results. Restudies after angioplasty prove beyond doubt that long-term success is reproducible in single vessel and multi-vessel coronary artery diseases, provided the proper technique is used.

Answer 3

pretty sucessful
go for it.