Ask a Texas Heart Institute Doctor
Informed patients make better patients.
Question:
Please explain the technique for placing two stents in the same artery. I suffered a heart attack last year. There were two stents placed in my artery. How are the two stents placed? Are they side-by-side or do they connect to one another?
submitted by Carolyn, from Calumet, 2/3/09
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, Gerardo Kalife, MD 
The technique of placing two stents in the same artery has to do with covering a segment of atherosclerotic plaque that involves a longer territory than average. One stent may be enough to cover part of the plaque but if in the same artery there is further disease (blockage), then you either overlap one more stent or just place another stent in the remaining region with subsequent disease (blockage). This is certainly not uncommon in individuals with more diffuse (widespread) coronary artery disease.
See also on this site:
View complete list of "Ask a Heart Doctor" Questions and Answers
| Heart Information Center services are made possible in part by a generous gift from the Hamill Foundation. |
Updated February 2009
