Multiple Stents -- Cardiology Patients' Forum

Multiple Stents

My father was told by the cardiologist that he will need 2 or 3 medicated stents. However, on the day of procedure cardiologist end up implanting only one medicated stent saying he will put second one after few days as putting them at the same time might lead to bleeding (because of blood thinning).

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Current Postings on This Page (2):

• Shall in Massachusetts -- Your dad's cardiologist is doing what is called a "staged intervention", which is a more cautious approach -- and he probably has a good reason for it. From what you report, he is concerned over bleeding complications that might occur, since multiple stents might require a higher level of anticoagulation (there are various drugs given during the procedure to achieve this). One road to solving this problem, if the concern is bleeding at the catheter access site (usually made in the groin or femoral artery), has been to use the radial artery in the wrist as an access site -- not practiced much in the U.S. but used 40-50% of the time in Europe, India, etc. Access site bleeding complications in the transradial approach are minimal. However, he may be concerned with internal bleeding complications -- different. It's a cautious approach which, in your father's specific case, the cardiologist has decided is prudent. Multiple stents are often placed in a single procedure -- but every patient and every clinical situation is different. If you ask your dad's cardiologist, he should be able to explain why he made the decision he did and set your concerns at ease.
Forum Editor, Angioplasty.Org, August 28, 2010

• Hi, my father was told by the cardiologist that he will need 2 or 3 medicated stents. However, on the day of procedure cardiologist end up implanting only one medicated stent saying he will put second one after few days as putting them at the same time might lead to bleeding (because of blood thinning). My 2 questions: [1] Is it possible in certain cases that doctor cannot tell the definitive number of stents required in spite of having all the medical test results available and go to procedure saying you might need 2 or 3 stents? [2] Can in certain medical cases more then one medicated stent cannot be implanted in single procedure and patient has to wait few days for the second medicated stent? Thanks.
Shall, Massachusetts, USA, August 23, 2010

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