Coronary Angioplasty

Balloon Angioplasty
Coronary Angioplasty

Angioplasty is a method to remove blocks from important blood vessels. The most common form of angioplasty is coronary angioplasty, the method of removing blocks from the blood vessels supplying oxygenated blood (arteries) to the heart. Coronary angioplasty was originally described by Andreas Gruentzig in 1975. He used a balloon at the tip of tiny long tubes known catheters to dilate narrowed coronary arteries. The procedure is also known as PTCA (Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty). Blood vessels supplying the brain, kidneys and the limbs can also be treated by angioplasty. Coronary angioplasty is usually done when one or more blood vessels supplying the heart are critically narrowed (> 70% decrease in diameter). The most important benefit of angioplasty is symptomatic relief, rather than improvement in survival. The procedure is done under local anaesthesia. The tiny tubes used for angioplasty can be introduced into the body either through the groin or above the wrist. The tubes are threaded back into the main artery of the body called aorta and from the aorta into the coronary arteries under x-ray fluoroscopic guidance. Initially iodine containing contrast dye is injected into the vessels to visualise the sites of narrowing.