Balloon Angioplasty
One of the minimally invasive endovascular surgeries performed at NYU to treat arterial blockages and restore blood flow to organs without large surgical incisions or exposures
What happens during a balloon angioplasty?
A step-by-step description of the balloon angioplasty procedure, presurgery to postsurgery.
Am I a candidate for a balloon angioplasty?
How NYU’s surgeons and radiologists evaluate each patient’s health and anatomy to determine the best endovascular treatment option.
Stents and Stent-Grafts
Metal mesh tubes, plastic tubes, and fabric tubes used to hold arteries open and help them heal after angioplasty.
Benefits and Complications of Balloon Angioplasty
Minimally invasive surgery performed under local anesthesia with results equal to traditional vascular bypass surgery.
Why Choose NYU for Balloon Angioplasty?
The largest team of top-level vascular specialists, members of a leading academic medical center in New York City. Surgeons with commitment to finding the best treatment methods, success in surgical outcomes, extensively published medical experts who lead vascular research and treatment worldwide.
Balloon Angioplasty
Balloon angioplasty, one of the minimally invasive endovascular surgeries performed at NYU, treats artery and vein blockages and restores blood flow to organs without large surgical incisions or exposures.
Balloon angioplasty was one of the first forms of endovascular treatment pioneered in the 1970s. Stents and stent-grafts were developed in the early 1990s to augment the success of balloon angioplasty as a minimally invasive treatment procedure for atherosclerosis and carotid artery disease. Consistent with their commitment to adopt the best possible leading-edge treatment methods for patients with atherosclerosis and aneurysms, NYU’s vascular surgeons implemented the use of stent-grafts when they first became available.
More information about balloon angioplasty is available on the Society for Vascular Surgery website.
What happens during a balloon angioplasty?
Once the diagnosis of significant arterial stenosis
has been made, NYU’s vascular surgeons critically evaluate each patient’s general health and anatomy to determine the best course of treatment for that patient.
Not every patient is a candidate for balloon angioplasty.
Balloon Angioplasty Procedure
Depending on the extent of the underlying complication, balloon angioplasty surgery takes 30–90 minutes.
Patients are admitted to the hospital on the same day of surgery.
- A local anesthetic is administered and the procedure or intervention begins.
- The surgeon places a needle into the patient’s groin or femoral artery. This is known as an endovascular approach in which an artery in the neck, abdomen, chest, or elsewhere is treated via a remote access site.
- The surgeon inserts a catheter (small thin tube) into the narrowed or blocked artery. The catheter has a specialized balloon on the other end.
- Once the catheter is inside the artery, the surgeon inflates the balloon and pushes aside the blood vessel blockage.
- The surgeon places a stent
in the artery to hold it open. - The surgeon deflates the balloon, removes both the balloon and the catheter, and applies manual pressure until bleeding is stopped.
Following surgery, patients spend a few hours in the recovery area lying on their back.
Patients are often sent home the same day of surgery.
Am I a candidate for a balloon angioplasty?
Not every patient is a candidate for balloon angioplasty.
The location, size, and shape of the arterial blockage often determine whether a patient can be successfully treated by balloon angioplasty or another endovascular treatment technique.
Patients who have atherosclerosis or carotid artery disease should choose a surgeon who can perform angioplasty and stenting and carotid endarterectomy surgery.
NYU’s vascular surgeons perform the full range of endovascular treatment techniques. NYU surgeons and radiologists critically evaluate each patient’s health and anatomy to determine the best course of treatment, and work with each patient to help him or her understand which approach is best.
Stents and Stent-Grafts
An arterial stent is a metal mesh tube that is inserted into a blood vessel to hold it open and help it heal after balloon angioplasty.
Stents can be coated with a material (medication, plastic, or fabric) or attached to a stent-graft. Stent-grafts are traditionally used to bypass arterial blockages. A bypass stent-graft is a fabric or plastic tube that replaces part of a blood vessel.
Stents and stent-grafts were developed in the early 1990s to augment the success of balloon angioplasty as a minimally invasive treatment procedure for atherosclerosis and carotid artery disease. Since then, improved stents and stent-grafts have been developed and tested through clinical trials at NYU.
open-cell vs. closed-cell stents both are used at NYU and depend upon the specific application.Benefits and Complications of Balloon Angioplasty
Balloon angioplasty surgery is a minimally invasive procedure performed under local anesthesia. Properly performed, angioplasty results can be equally compared to the success traditional vascular bypass surgery, a much more invasive procedure.
Complications of angioplasty surgery are unusual and mostly related to local problems (bleeding) at the arterial puncture site. These complications are unusual and readily treated by NYU’s experienced vascular surgeons.
Why Choose NYU for Balloon Angioplasty?
NYU Medical Center’s vascular surgeons perform all types of carotid artery surgery—balloon angioplasty, artery stenting, and carotid endarterectomy—and critically evaluate each patient’s unique vascular health needs to produce the best individualized treatment plan.
NYU Medical Center’s Division of Vascular Surgery offers the largest team of top-level vascular specialists in New York City. Members of a leading academic medical center, NYU’s vascular surgeons are deeply committed to finding the most advanced, innovative, proven methods to treat carotid artery atherosclerosis.
NYU’s vascular surgeons have proven success in their outcomes:
NYU’s vascular surgeons are academic experts in the area of carotid artery disease, having written volumes of articles, books, and papers on subjects including atherosclerosis, carotid artery stenosis, carotid artery stents, angioplasty, and carotid artery endarterectomy surgery.
