Learning about your heart stent

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Many patients mistakenly believe a stent ‘fixes’ their hearts for good, What they do not realize is that taking care of their stent is the next vital step in the recovery process.

- Dr. JoAnne Foody, medical director, Cardiovascular Wellness Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital

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Learning About Your Heart Stent After Your Stent Procedure How to Stay Heart Healthy With Your Stent Keeping Your Heart Healthy After Your Stent Procedure Caregiver Guide Personalized Patient Health Sheet Learning About Your Heart Stent As someone who has just had a heart event, which can include a heart attack or heart-related chest pain (angina),¹ it's important to learn about keeping your heart healthy. In the hospital, you had a procedure called an angioplasty and had a stent placed in your coronary artery (the artery feeding the heart muscle) to restore blood flow to your heart.³ Following your procedure, it is normal to have questions about your stent, recovery, treatment plan, and your overall heart health. What is a stent? A stent is a small metal scaffold that looks like a spring or coil. A stent is implanted during angioplasty to keep open a coronary artery that was blocked thereby restoring blood flow to the heart.³ What is percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)? PCI is a term used for a procedure called angioplasty. The physician makes a small incision, (in the groin area or the wrist), and inserts a narrow tube called a catheter. The catheter is threaded through an artery to the blocked heart artery. During angioplasty, a small balloon is inflated to push plaque back against the artery wall. Then, the stent may be implanted and locked into the narrowing to keep the artery open. The PCI procedure restores blood flow in the arteries to your heart.⁶⁸ In 2006, more than one million PCI procedures were performed in the United States.⁵⁶ Often, PCI involves the insertion of a stent, which remains in place after your procedure,⁶⁸ to reduce the chances that the artery will become blocked again. Are there different kinds of stents? Different types of stents are used in the US. These include: A drug-eluting stent (DES): This stent has a medicated coating that is slowly released over time to prevent too much scar tissue from forming in the area, where stent was placed.³ A bare-metal stent (BMS): This stent does not have the medicated coating.³ In 2006, about 76 percent of stents implanted during PCI in the US were drug-eluting stents.⁵⁶ Why do physicians choose to treat patients with a stent? When an artery is narrowed by a buildup of fatty deposits called plaque, it can reduce blood flow.³ If blood flow is reduced to the heart muscle, chest pain can result.³ If coronary plaque, in the arteries ruptures, the blood will clot to seal the rupture.³ This blood clot may completely block blood flow to part of the heart muscle, resulting in heart attack.³ Stents help keep coronary arteries open and help reduce the chance of another heart event.³ How do you take care of your stent? Once inserted into the body, it is important to take care of your stent so it continues working properly. This means keeping blood flowing and reducing the occurrence of future blood clots within the stent. Taking prescription oral antiplatelet medications is an important way to do this. Your doctor has likely prescribed dual (two) antiplatelet medications, which helps prevent blood from clumping together to form clots.⁶² The medications prescribed to prevent clotting are usually pills that are taken every day. You should not stop taking your antiplatelet medications unless instructed by your doctor.⁶² No reference available. Lilly is not responsible for any third party content.