Artery Blockage

[carleed]

My husband had a cardiac cath. and was told he had a 70% blockage in a main artery and 30  to 35% in two others. The cardiologist that did the cardiac cath. does not put in stents but he has told us my husband needs to have a stent put in the artery with the 70% blockage and has recommended a Dr. to do the procedure. Is it common to have a stent put in with a 70% blockage?

[ed34]

I had a similar situation where I had an angiogram to establish what had gone wrong with my bypass. Doctors go through different levels of training and gain experience in those procedures. A Doctor wouldn't learn how to insert a catheter, balloon, insert stents, rotablate, laser, etc etc all in one training session and be expected to be able to perform them all on patients. It's one step at a time, gain experience, then the next stage. I was told I would be having an angiogram at that time and no intervention would be given.
It's obviously different when an emergency patient arrives with serious chest pains or their troponin levels are high in blood tests. Then a fully trained cardiologist would be called to do the procedure. The cardiologists we have working on us in hospitals are less experienced than those in research or training because they are on the front line of the newest technology and receive the most difficult of cases.

[ChatterAlly]

I had a cardiologist that did the heart cath, but was not able to do the stents because the hospital he worked in did not have a cardiac crash team.  I had to be transferred to another hospital.  This happened after my first heart attack.  I just pulled into the nearest hospital.  So there are variances to this.  Take care all!

[skydnsr]

So if some cardiologists do caths but don't do stents, why would a coronary artery patient ever want to have a cath done by one of the docs who doesn't do stents?  And how would it be ethical for a cardiologist who doesn't do stents to do someone's cath, if there is any question that the patient might need a stent?

[Regalhank]

No, I don't think it's unusual--my husband also had a cardiac catheretization by a cardiologist who does not do stents and then several days later one was inserted by a cardiac surgeon--it was explained to me that not all cath people do stents--that's a whole different ball of wax and I don't it has to do with one is less skilled than the other; I think you only have so many of each type on your staff.  Ours is the top heart hospital in our area and they're not employing people who "missed the lecture".  Some dentists pull wisdom teeth, others don't.

[Jack54]

This is very rare for an interventional cardiologist to do a cardiac catheterization and not be able to insert stents. He must have missed the weekend seminar...

This doc did an angiogram that is recorded on a cd. A real doc can look at it and see the blockages.

Good luck,

Jack

[uk_chris]

I think that 70% is the cut off point. i.e. less than 70% they won't stent it but over 70% they will.