All you need to know about angioplasty & bypass surgery
Angioplasty and Bypass Surgery are both medical/surgical treatment options for removing blockage from the arteries that deliver oxygenated blood throughout your body. Blockage in the arteries can lead to a stroke or a heart attack. This is because when an artery is clogged from a buildup of plaque, it reduces the blood flow to the other parts of your body, which can then lead to cardiac arrest.
As medical procedures though an angioplasty and bypass surgery have a similar use, they are different procedures that are suggested to patients according to their requirements. Let’s take a look at the differences between these two procedures and their functions.
What Is A Bypass Surgery?
When a person has a blocked artery in their heart, doctors take a healthy artery from the patient’s chest cavity or from their leg and reroute the blood flow away from the blocked artery. The process of bypassing the blocked artery by creating a new lane for the blood flow is what gives this surgical procedure its name bypass surgery. Bypass surgery is performed not only on one artery in a single surgery; multiple arteries can and are generally rerouted to save the patient’s life and restore normal blood flow back in the heart.
What is An Angioplasty?
Angioplasty is a surgical procedure that relies heavily on technological tools. A balloon-shaped catheter is inserted in your body from either your groin or arm, and through the major arteries, it travels to the point of blockage. At the point of blockage, the catheter swells up and widens the narrowed arteries creating space for normal blood flow. Doctors often place a small plastic or metal tube in the arteries called stents to prevent the artery from narrowing or getting blocked again in the future.
Angioplasty is also a very commonly performed heart surgery, but there are differences between angioplasty and bypass surgery. Let’s look at the difference between these procedures.
Difference Between An Angioplasty & A Bypass Surgery
Severity Of The Procedure
When it comes to the severity, bypass surgery is a major and serious surgical procedure, whereas angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure with a very fast recovery time. A bypass surgery requires patients to go through general anesthesia, and the recovery period can go as long as 12 weeks with a short stay in the ICU. When it comes to angioplasty, this is not the case. Angioplasty requires you to just go through local anesthesia, and the entire surgical process takes 30 minutes to an hour max, and you can recover within a week or two and go back to your normal lifestyle again.
Longevity Of Treatment
Both of these surgical procedures are performed on the heart, but as treatment options, their effect does not last forever. When it comes to the durability and longevity of the results, bypass surgery is better than angioplasty. This is mainly because a bypass surgery at least tries to fix the problem of blockage by rerouting the blood flow to a different path that is not blocked. An angioplasty just widens a narrowed artery and does not fix the underlying problem, which means the artery can narrow again even if a stent is placed.
Post bypass surgery, if the patient follows doctor’s orders, makes lifestyle changes, and starts exercising, they can see a drastic improvement in their health and possibly would not have to fear about going through the process again. The same goes for a person going through angioplasty but still, given that the problem still exists in your arteries, angioplasty is not in your best interest for the long run.
Conclusion
A heart surgery is not a wish list; patients do not generally get to choose which surgery they prefer, especially when it comes to life-saving procedures such as an angioplasty or a bypass surgery. The only thing you can ask for in these situations is to get the best medical care possible and to get a minimally invasive successful surgery that lets you recover quickly. For all the qualities mentioned above, visit Medipulse hospital, the best private and tertiary care hospital in Jodhpur.