angioplasty

angioplasty (ăn`jēōplăs'tē), any surgical repair of a blood vessel, especially

balloon angioplasty or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, a treatment of coronary artery disease. In balloon angioplasty a balloon-tipped catheter is inserted through the skin into a blood vessel and maneuvered to the clogged portion of the artery. There it is threaded into the blockage and inflated, compressing the plaque against the arterial walls. Frequent postoperative reclogging (restenosis) of the treated area has led to the use of alternative techniques such as laser angioplasty, which employs a laser to burn away or vaporize the plaque, and to the study of various drugs, gene therapies, and mechanical devices such as a stainless steel coil, or stent (sometimes coated with a drug that inhibits restenosis), designed to hold the plaque back.

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angioplasty

Therapeutic opening of a blocked blood vessel. Usually a balloon is inflated near the end of a catheter (see catheterization) to flatten plaques (see atherosclerosis) against an artery's wall. Performed on a coronary artery, angioplasty is a less invasive alternative to coronary bypass surgery in the treatment of coronary heart disease. Complications, including embolisms and tearing, are rare and results are excellent, but plaques tend to build up again after the procedure. Angioplasty is also used to expand a severely obstructed heart valve.