Forging ahead with angioplasty

AROUND the world, more than a million angioplasty procedures are performed each year to try to relieve pain in people with blocked heart arteries. The less invasive catheter procedure appears to be preferred by patients who would rather risk having to do a repeat angioplasty than undergoing open-heart bypass graft surgery.  

“Patients believe that angioplasty is a better procedure, and we as surgeons have to recognise that coronary artery bypass graft surgery may be becoming obsolete,” said Timothy Gardner, M.D., the chief of the cardiothoracic division for the University of Pennsylvania Health System and clinical director of cardiac surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.