They are typically out of the hospital in one day and back to work in a week. Angioplasties with stents are highly successful in keeping arteries open and reducing need for additional procedures. Physicians use a tiny coil on a catheter to deliver radiation to the artery in an effort to prevent it from closing in the future. It is successful in keeping arteries unclogged. Rather than using open-chest surgery, physicians operate through small openings, or ports, between the ribs.
Incisions are four inches wide.
Digital cameras on the tips of the endoscopes allow a full field of vision. Some incisions can be closed with an adhesive strip. The condition results from narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. This can produce chest pain, heart attacks, and death. It is responsible for one in every five deaths.