Angioplasty Surgery : Angioplasty involves widening an artery from within to allow improved blood flow to heart tissue.


Also called: Balloon angioplasty


Doctors may use angioplasty to

  • Reduce chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart
  • Minimize damage to heart muscle from a heart attack


NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Angioplasty (or Balloon angioplasty) is an endovascular procedure to widen narrowed or obstructed arteries or veins, typically to treat arterial atherosclerosis. An empty, collapsed balloon, known as a balloon catheter, is passed over a wire into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size. The balloon forces expansion of the stenosis (narrowing) within the vessel and the surrounding muscular wall, opening up the blood vessel for improved flow, and the balloon is then deflated and withdrawn. A stent may or may not be inserted at the time of ballooning to ensure the vessel remains open.

The word is composed of the combining forms of the Greek words ἀγγεῖον angīon ‘vessel’/‘cavity’ (of the human body) and πλάσσω plasso ‘form’/‘mould’. Angioplasty has come to include all manner of vascular interventions that are typically performed in a minimally-invasive or percutaneous method.
