Quality Health Travel for PTCA Balloon Angioplasty

The heart is supplied with oxygen by blood arriving in the coronary arteries. If fatty material (atheroma) builds up in the coronary arteries, it causes them to narrow. This starves the heart of oxygen, which causes pain in the chest called angina. If the arteries are almost completely blocked, it makes a heart attack more likely.

Coronary angioplasty can open up the narrowed arteries so that blood flows more easily to the heart muscle.

Coronary angioplasty is also known as angioplasty for short, and we will refer to the procedure as angioplasty throughout this factsheet. Other names for the procedure are percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Fact File

The heart is supplied with oxygen by blood arriving in the coronary arteries. If fatty material (atheroma) builds up in the coronary arteries, it causes them to narrow. This starves the heart of oxygen, which causes pain in the chest called angina. If the arteries are almost completely blocked, it makes a heart attack more likely.

Coronary angioplasty can open up the narrowed arteries so that blood flows more easily to the heart muscle.

Coronary angioplasty is also known as angioplasty for short, and we will refer to the procedure as angioplasty throughout this factsheet. Other names for the procedure are percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

You will probably have your angioplasty in a specially equipped room called a catheterisation laboratory. The procedure lasts around 30 minutes, but may take longer depending on how many arteries need to be treated.

Your doctor will make a small cut in your groin, arm or wrist and thread a catheter through an artery that leads to your heart. He or she will inject a special dye into your blood vessels and using X-ray pictures, will direct the catheter to the narrowed section of the artery. You won’t feel the catheter inside the blood vessels but you may feel a warm sensation when the dye moves around your body.

Your doctor will pass a thin, flexible guide wire, with a tiny, deflated balloon at the end, down the catheter. When it reaches the fatty deposit, the balloon will be gently inflated to squash the fatty material. The balloon will then be deflated and removed, leaving more room in the artery for blood to flow to your heart.

A stent is often used to hold the artery open after the balloon has been removed. The collapsed stent covers the balloon and is opened when the balloon is inflated. The stent may be a bare metal stent (also known as an uncoated stent) or a drug-eluting stent. Drug-eluting stents are coated with a medicine that reduces the risk of the artery becoming narrow again after the angioplasty.

Your doctor will advise whether a stent is suitable for your angioplasty and if so, which type of stent is best for you.

The tube used to insert the catheter into your artery may be left in your groin or arm for a few hours. When it’s removed a nurse will press firmly for up to 20 minutes to seal the artery. This helps to reduce bleeding when it’s taken out.

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