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How Stents Work
More than one million Americans undergo angioplasty each year. In this procedure, doctors pull tiny balloons through clogged heart arteries, then inflate the balloons briefly to open the arteries to blood flow. The arteries often close again, and in recent years, doctors have implanted tiny wire coils, called stents, to keep them open.
A stent is a small, latticed, metal "scaffold" that is introduced into your blood vessel on a balloon catheter. The doctor maneuvers the catheter into the blocked artery and inflates the balloon. Inflation causes the stent to expand and press against the vessel wall. Once the balloon has been deflated and withdrawn, the stent stays in place permanently, holding the blood vessel open and improving blood flow.
The reopened arteries may close again in about 25% of the cases due to a condition called restenosis. This condition usually occurs when scar-like tissue fills the artery. It must be fixed with a repeat angioplasty or a coronary bypass. The remedy for restenosis is a new kind of stent which is coated with special medicines that release into the artery to prevent the problem cells from growing there.
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