PERIPHERAL VASCULAR INTERVENTIONS
Helping You Get Healthy
How is peripheral artery disease treated?
Lifestyle changes such as dietary modifications, exercise and smoking cessation often are the first choices for patients with early-stage PAD. Other interventions may be needed to restore blood flow:
Angioplasty: In an angioplasty procedure, an interventional cardiologist threads a catheter through a blood vessel to the affected artery and inflates a small balloon to reopen it. In some cases, the insertion of a stent is required to help keep the artery open. Stents are either balloon-expandable or self-expanding metallic scaffolds that remain permanently in the blood vessel after implantation.
Bypass surgery: Surgeons perform bypass surgery by grafting a vessel from another part of your body or using a synthetic graft made of fabric, allowing blood to flow around, or bypass, the blocked or narrowed artery.
Catheter-directed Thrombolysis: In this minimally invasive treatment, an interventional cardiologist uses a catheter to reach the site of the blockage and injects a drug to dissolve the blood clot. This typically requires an overnight infusion.
Atherectomy: This minimally invasive procedure uses a catheter to reach the site of the blockage. There, a small blade or laser is deployed to remove the arterial plaque. The catheter captures the collected plaque in a chamber in the tip. The process can be repeated to treat additional plaque.
