Heart Stents more commonplace
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PrintFormer President Bill Clinton's heart condition and recent hospitalization highlights the use of stents in treating blocked arteries around the heart.–
This story was published this morning on WBAY Channel 2 News
It was 1986 when a doctor in France and a doctor in Switzerland performed the first coronary stent procedures. By the early 1990s, stents arrived in the United States.
Now doctors in the U.S. put stents in more than one million people in a procedure that's become commonplace.
"It's significantly more common now to have a coronary interventional catheter-based procedure, such as an angioplasty stent-type procedure as opposed to bypass surgery," said Dr. Rick Timmons, president, Cardiology Associates of Green Bay.
"If you went back 15 years there would be many more bypasses performed rather than angioplasty stents," he said.
The use of coronary stents is a rather simple procedure and most often used after angioplasty – where a balloon is filled with air to force open a clogged artery.
Once the artery is open, a second balloon catheter with a stent on its tip is inserted into the artery and inflated, locking the stent into place.
Doctors say the small wire mesh tubes save thousands of lives every year.
"There's great data that shows when people have an acute heart attack, if they come in and have an emergent angioplasty stent, their survival rate is much higher than it used to be," Timmons said.
According to Timmons, at Bellin Hospital alone, doctors perform an estimated 1,000 stent procedures a year.
In other Bellin related news
Bellin Health will hold a free heart health screening from 8 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, at its Suring clinic.
The screenings include total cholesterol and glucose tests, a blood pressure check and body mass index tests. Results will be available 10 minutes after the assessments.
Appointments are required. Participants are encouraged to fast for 10 hours before their appointment for more accurate results.
Morning medication and water are allowed. The clinic, Bellin Health Family Medical Center-Suring, is at 307 Manor Drive, Suring.
Heart diseases kill roughly 700,000 people each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For more information or for scheduling, please call (888) 758-7373 or (920) 445-7373.
