A stent is a small mesh tube that is inserted into a blocked section of an artery in order to keep the passageway open and allow the flow of blood to resume. A stent can be made of plastic or metal or another specialized fabric. While most stents are bare-metal, some are coated with medication to help keep an artery open. These are called drug-eluting stents.
Why are stents used?
The most common reason for needing a stent is to open up a blood vessel that has been compromised by plaque, a substance made primarily of cholesterol that can build up and attach to the walls of vessels and arteries. When this happens, it slows the blood flow to the heart and can cause blood clots or stroke, which can be very dangerous.
Stents are also used in emergency situations if the blood flow is completely blocked in one of your coronary arteries (an artery in the heart).
There are other uses for stents besides blocked arteries and blood vessels. They can also be used in the brain if there is an aneurysm. Additionally, stents can be used to open up other types of passageways that have become blocked or damaged, such as bile ducts (tubes that carry bile to and from the digestive organs), bronchi (the small airways in the lungs), and ureters (the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder).
How is a stent inserted?
Stent insertion is generally a minimally invasive procedure. For a stent placement in an artery, a small incision is made near a blood vessel in the arm, leg, or wrist. Then, a thin, flexible tube called a catheter is threaded into the vein. An angioplasty is common procedure that helps stent placement in arteries. This involves a small balloon on the tip of the catheter that is inflated in areas where arteries are blocked to stretch and widen the arteries before the stent is placed. The stent works to support the walls of your artery and prevent it from re-narrowing after the procedure is complete. A small amount of dye may also be injected through the catheter to help your doctor see the blockage on X-ray images called angiograms.
If you have several blockages, the procedure may be repeated at each blockage. Depending on the amount of blockages, an angioplasty can take between 30 minutes to several hours.
What happens after the procedure?
You will probably remain in the hospital for 24 hours after the procedure to monitor your heart and adjust your medications to ensure that you don’t develop a blood clot. After going home from the hospital, it is important that you follow your doctor’s recommendations and instructions about taking blood-thinning medications. This could include aspirin, clopidogrel, or other similar products. You may need to take these medications for the rest of your life to ensure that you never develop blood clots that could lead to heart attack or stroke.
