Angioplasty & Stenting

What is Angioplasty & Stenting?

Your heart depends on its own set of blood vessels to keep doing its job, but these coronary arteries can become narrowed or blocked by fatty deposits called plaque. This prevents your heart from getting as much blood as it needs.

Angioplasty and stenting can reopen your coronary arteries to restore the blood supply to your heart. This procedure is also used as an emergency treatment when someone is having a heart attack.

Angioplasty and stenting are also used to open blood vessels in other parts of the body, including arteries in the neck, legs, and kidneys.

Our Approach

A thin tube called a catheter is inserted into an incision and guided through a blood vessel to the site of the blockage. A tiny “balloon” at the end of the catheter is then inflated to widen the blocked area of the artery and—in most cases—a tiny, expandable tube called a stent is used to hold a blood vessel open and prevent the blood vessel from narrowing again.

What Sets Us Apart?

At UR Medicine, our heart doctors are all fellowship-trained—the highest level of training available.

Our team performs a high volume of procedures, which has been shown to be one of the best predictors of an excellent outcome.

The Cardiac Catheterization Lab at UR Medicine is the most advanced lab of its kind in the Rochester metropolitan area and surrounding region. We perform many advanced procedures that are unavailable at other hospitals. In fact, we were the first in the Rochester metropolitan area and surrounding region to perform procedures such as angioplasty and placing coronary stents.

Our rapid treatment for heart attacks ranks among the fastest in the nation: our “door-to-balloon" times (from patient arrival to when the catheter wire reaches the blockage) place us in the top 10% of all hospitals in the county.