SPEAKER: Your heart gets oxygen
and nutrients from blood flowing
through your arteries.
But fatty deposits called plaque
can build up in those vessels,
reducing blood flow
and keeping your heart
from getting everything
it needs.
One treatment for this condition
is coronary angioplasty
and stenting.
It opens narrowed arteries,
allowing blood to flow freely
again.
When you have angioplasty,
you will be awake but drowsy.
Your doctor will insert
a soft plastic tube
into a large artery
in your groin.
Next, she'll thread
a flexible guide wire
through the tube, up
through your circulatory system,
and all the way
to your narrowed artery.
Then she'll thread a catheter
over the wire.
The catheter has a balloon
on the end surrounded
by an expandable mesh tube,
or stent.
She'll gently guide it
to the narrowed part
of the artery
and inflate the balloon, which
will press against the sides
of the artery.
The inflated balloon will then
lock the stent into place so it
will stay open and let blood
flow freely again.
The catheter will then
be removed, and your doctor will
stitch up the skin where it was
inserted.
