What is a stent?

A stent is a small wire mesh tube mounted on a tiny balloon. During the procedure, we first guide a wire through the coronary artery and past the blockage. We usually begin by inflating a small balloon to open the blockage slightly. We then position the balloon with the wire mesh stent over the blocked area and inflate it, expanding the stent against the artery wall.

Once the balloon is deflated and removed, the stent remains in place. It acts as a scaffold to keep the artery open and maintain blood flow.

There are several different types of stents. Today, we almost always use medicated (or drug-eluting) stents because they have an excellent success rate. Approximately 96% of these stents remain open long-term.

Sometimes more than one stent is needed. This is usually because the blockage is too long for a single stent or because there are multiple areas of blockage within the artery. Whether you receive one stent or several, the overall risk remains about the same. The risk of a catastrophic complication is approximately 1 in 1,000, and there is about a 1 in 100 chance of requiring emergency bypass surgery.

Most stents are placed during the same procedure as your heart catheterization. In about 90% of cases if we find a significant blockage that matches what we expected, we’ll go ahead and place the stent immediately.

Occasionally, we may schedule the stent procedure for a later date. This can happen if specialized equipment is needed, if we expect the procedure to take significantly longer than usual or if we want to discuss the treatment plan with the patient beforehand. In some cases, we must use specialized balloons to open particularly hardened or heavily calcified arteries before placing a stent, and these situations may require a separate procedure.