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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
restenosis of stent
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
restenosis of stent
by Laura-Shaw, Feb 20, 1999 12:00AM
I am a 64 year old female who has had 2 stents. Had a positive myo/stress
test and my cardiologist thinks I may have one of the stents that is
blocking up. He will do a heart cath this week. Would like to know what
the success rate is to unstop it. Will I have to have by-pass to remove
or can they remove and replace the stent. The stent is in the anterior
desending coronary artery, where I had had an angioplasty done 14 years
ago.
Sincerely,
Laura Shaw
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD APS, Feb 20, 1999 12:00AM
_
Dear Laura,
Stents are permanent fixtures in the body so to speak. This "in-stent restenosis" is a bit of a problem for some cardiac patients but of course we have a few remedies to treat this problem some of which are experimental (for instance, there are trials underway that assess the response of the restenosis to a small dose of radiation right at the site of restenosis.) Likely, if you do have restenosis the conventional treatment will be performed first, i.e. if possible (conventional treatments are re-angioplasty of the area, and roto rooter type angioplasty treatments which are successful in some patients but not all.) Make sure that when your doctor re-catheterizes your heart vessels and gives you the results that you ask him or her what all the potential treatment options are for your findings (sometimes the choices are only bypass in the operating room, but you do not even know whether or not there is restenosis, it is fairly likely that you have developed another significant blockage in the left anterior descending artery that is not involved in the stented area-again ask your doctor for all the options.)
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please
call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at
www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the
cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your
cardiac problem.
