Angioplasty

Coronary Stents: Overview of This Common Tool to Keep Clogged Arteries Open

Published in Drug Week, June 22nd, 2007

Tiny, expandable mesh tubes — or stents — which help prop open clogged arteries are among the most commonly used medical devices. A recent issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter offers an overview of this treatment, including an update on recent research that raised some questions about stent use.

In angioplasty, doctors insert a flexible tube (catheter) into a leg or arm and thread it toward a blocked heart artery. In the early days of this procedure, a balloon at the end of the catheter was inflated to stretch open the artery. About 30 to 40 percent of the time, the stretched vessel would narrow again. In the mid-1990s, the Food and Drug Administration approved the...

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Source: Drug Week (2007-06-22)

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