Angioplasty and other invasive surgeries, like knee replacement, have become more common. In the past years, the use of coronary stenting and drug-eluting stents have led to a tremendous increase in the number of patients undergoing angioplasty. For many, the word ‘heart’ has become synonymous with ‘angioplasty’.
The reason is that as people live longer and healthier lives, they tend to develop more cardiovascular diseases. This means modern medicine should keep pace to stay abreast of new technologies and prevent conditions like heart failure from becoming more common.
Health conditions treated through angioplasty
One treatment condition is atherosclerosis, the hardening of artery walls due to plaque build-up fatty deposits. This condition eventually leads to a heart attack if not treated appropriately. If you are diagnosed with atherosclerosis and have a plaque in your arteries, you may be at risk of a heart attack. The most common risk factors for a heart attack are diabetes, high blood pressure, and age.
When your arteries become clogged, blood flow to your heart reduces, leading to chest pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue. If you have one of these risk factors, an angioplasty can unblock your arteries and decrease your risk of a heart attack. This invasive procedure can be performed both open-wound and endovascular, depending on the location of your blockage.
How to safely minimise the risk of invasive procedures?
- Know your limits
No matter how much you want to get invasive procedures done, you should be aware of your health and associated risks. This is true, especially if you have a pre-existing condition like heart disease. Otherwise, you could end up worsening your health or risk having a procedure that is either ineffective or harmful.
- Ask your doctor
If you want to learn about the risks and benefits of invasive procedures, then ask your doctor. Stay on top of your recovery process to stay as healthy as possible while recovering.
- Be realistic
If invasive procedures are unnecessary, do not rush into them because they seem like they could prevent heart disease. If you should choose between a process that is likely to avoid a heart attack versus one that would be slightly less invasive but still makes you feel better, you can choose not to have the former. Cardiovascular diseases cannot beat you if you know the risks of invasive procedures and how to minimise them.
Thankfully, most people do not develop cardiovascular diseases until they are older, so do not rush into invasive procedures. Suppose you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or atherosclerosis risk conditions. In that case, you may want to consider getting an angiogram done to see if it is safer to have an angioplasty done.