BIOL355 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Balloon Catheter, Coronary Circulation, Restenosis
21 Apr 2017
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Stents are wire mesh tubes that are collapsed to a small diameter and put over a balloon catheter. They are a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery during angioplasty. The balloon inflated and the stent expands and locks in place forming a scaffold that holds the artery open. The balloon is withdrawn and then stent stays in place permanently holding the artery open. This will improve blood flow and relieve symptoms of atherosclerosis. Now have drug-releasing stents that keep re-stenosis from reoccurring. Coronary bypass surgery is an open heart surgery. The chest is opened but not the heart itself. While one surgeon is working on the chest. Another works on taking a length of vein for the by pass through a long incision along. It is done through an opening through the breast bone the inside of the lower leg. The vein is sewn in above and below the blockage in the coronary artery.
