Even when the procedures are initially successful, some patients experience a recurrence of the blockage within six months. Julio C. Palmaz, MD, Stewart R. Reuter Distinguished Professor and chief of cardiovascular and interventional radiology at the Health Science Center, invented a tiny tube made from woven, surgical-grade stainless steel to help patients who have had an unsuccessful angioplasty procedure. In 1997 half of the 1.1 million balloon angioplasty patients received a stent, according to the publication Cowen Cardiology Device Update. The stent, which has been in use for about 10 years, can expand as much as a half-inch in diameter after it has been inserted into a large artery. This creates a scaffold which covers 10 percent of the affected artery wall and keeps it open so blood can flow through it.
Tissue grows around the stent in less than three weeks, forming a smooth artery wall.
Dr. Palmaz calculates his stent will last throughout the patient s lifetime. Dr. Palmaz put nine stents in me. This is the direction medicine is going toward preventing rather than treating disease. If surgery is needed, the trend is to do it without major trauma, but until atherosclerosis can be eliminated, the stent is available. And that makes millions of patients very happy.