angioplasty
Meaning of angioplasty: No incision ever reaches the artery: the whole repair travels there through a puncture, which is why recovery bears no resemblance to bypass surgery.
Definition of angioplasty
Angioplasty is a catheter procedure that reopens a narrowed or blocked artery from the inside. A fine tube is threaded from an artery at the wrist or groin to the narrowing, and a balloon at its tip is inflated to press the deposit outward and stretch the vessel open. A mesh stent is usually left behind to hold the channel open afterward.
How angioplasty is built
- angi/o Combining form · Greek vessel
- -plasty Suffix · Greek surgical repair or reconstruction
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
How is it done?
The artery is entered through a needle puncture, usually at the wrist and sometimes at the groin, and a short sheath holds that opening. A fine guidewire is steered through the vessels to the narrowing using x-ray guidance and injected contrast to outline the channel. A balloon catheter rides over the wire and is inflated for a few seconds at the narrowing, cracking and compressing the deposit and stretching the wall. A stent, a fine metal mesh crimped onto a second balloon, is then expanded into place and stays permanently, scaffolding the vessel so it does not spring back. The person is awake with local anesthetic at the puncture site.
What are the variations?
| Technique | Where it fits |
|---|---|
| Plain balloon angioplasty | Small vessels and places where leaving metal behind is undesirable |
| Drug-coated balloon | Delivers a drug into the wall to limit regrowth without an implant |
| Drug-eluting stent | Standard in coronary arteries; the coating slows scar tissue forming through the mesh |
| Atherectomy, including laser and rotational devices | Heavily calcified deposits that a balloon cannot expand |
How does it compare with bypass surgery?
Angioplasty treats the narrowing where it sits. Bypass surgery leaves it alone and builds a new route around it with a graft. The catheter approach avoids opening the chest, so recovery is measured in days rather than weeks, but the treated segment can narrow again as scar tissue grows through the stent, and antiplatelet medication is needed afterward to keep a clot from forming on the new metal surface. Which approach suits a given person depends on how many vessels are involved, where the narrowings sit and what other conditions are present. Beyond coronary heart disease, the same technique is used in leg, kidney, carotid and dialysis access vessels.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The patient underwent angioplasty with stent placement to restore blood flow through the narrowed artery.
Good to know
Angioplasty widens an artery that is already there, which distinguishes it from bypass surgery, where a graft is used to build a new route around the blockage.
Word origin
Where “angioplasty” comes from
Formed from angio-, from Greek angeion, meaning vessel, and -plasty, from Greek plassein, meaning to form or mold.