Medical Questions » Arteries and Veins Questions » Question No. 80
| Question: | A specialist has told me he is going to fix my blocked arteries with a small balloon, but he hasn' t explained just how. Can you help me? |
| Answer: | When an artery becomes narrowed by fatty deposits, insufficient blood may reach the part of the body beyond the narrowing, particularly during exercise, when more of the oxygen carried by the blood, is required as fuel by the muscles. When this happens, pain occurs in the affected muscle.
The area affected can be anywhere in the body, but the most commonly involved are the heart, head and legs.
In past years, the onlv way to overcome this blockage was an operation to bypass the damaged area of artery, or to clean out the fatty deposits from inside the artery.
In the last few years, heart surgeons have devised the technique of balloon angioplasty.
In this procedure, a fine tube is threaded into an artery, and moved along it until the blocked area is reached. The tube has a small balloon on the end of it. The hard tip of the tube is pushed through the obstructing fatty deposits, and then the balloon is gently blown up. This pushes aside the fat inside the artery, compresses it, and when the balloon is deflated, a clear channel is left for the blood to pass.
This delicate procedure saves the time, trauma and expense of a major operation, and is being used more and more where the blockage is not extensive. Large blockages will still need surgery, as sometimes the fat is too hard to be pushed away by the balloon. |
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