Vascular Disease is a problem with the blood flow in the arteries and veins. The arteries are the vessels that carry oxygenated blood away from the heart to the cells. The veins return the blood to the heart after the oxygen has been delivered. These vessels can develop problems that limit the circulation of the blood. This may be narrowing, or stenosis or plaque build-up. Sometimes these problems may be treated with interventional techniques.
Interventional Techniques for Vascular Disease
Angioplasty and Stent Graft
Interventional techniques are vascular procedures that can be done without major surgery. That is, work on blood vessels that is done with catheters, balloons and stents, through a small puncture into an artery. Two examples of interventions commonly performed at the International Heart Institute of Montana are angioplasty and stenting. These two interventions can be performed without the risks of invasive surgery.
Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty or PTA is a procedure done by Dr. Mark Sanz in the cardiac catheterization lab. The basic idea of angioplasty is to position a catheter with a small inflatable balloon at the tip inside the narrow section of the artery. The balloon is then inflated so that the arterial wall is stretched. This process increases the diameter of the narrowed section so that the blood can flow freely through the artery. The balloon is then deflated and removed.
Stent implantation is another technique used here at IHI to improve blood flow. A stent graft is a small metal scaffold that is permanently placed inside the narrowed section of the artery to maintain the vessel diameter. A stent is placed using roughly the same technique as is used during angioplasty. The catheter is used to guide the balloon and the stent to the narrowed site within the artery. The stent expands as the balloon is inflated and pushes against the arterial wall. The stent then remains expanded inside the artery. The balloon is deflated and removed but the stent will stay behind to prevent the vessel from becoming narrowed again (restenosing).
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