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Can I Have Normal Life Expectancy After Inserting Stents?
I have had four angioplastys and eight stents. I am 65 years old, in very good to excellent health, do not smoke and only occasionally have alcohol. Do the stents return me to a "normal" life expectancy schedule or should I expect to be compromised?
Mon, 13 Jul 2015
Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to HCM. I understand your concern.
It is my opinion and my in my experience, you can live a completely normal life after stent placement. It is a safe and effective treatment for coronary artery disease. However, there are some things that should be taken into consideration. First, you have to be regular in taking your medication. There are certain drugs that are added to your therapy especially to keep these stents patent (such as, clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticagrelor, one of these added to aspirin). Second, there is always a probability of intrastent re-stenosis (a phenomenon that is produced by the innermost lining of the coronary arteries, which is charachterized by narrowing the stent). This phenomenon's probability to happen is 16-20% in cases when a bare metal stent is used, and approximately 4% when a drug-eluting stent (a bare metal stent plus a anti proliferative medication coating) is used. This probability applies to all people. Third, a body of studies has shown that the more stents are used, the greater the probability of re-stenosis is. Also, the narrower the artery and the smaller the diameter of the stent, the greater the probability of re-stenosis. In the end, I would like to say that stents are remedies for coronary artery plaques and can be considered, with simple precautions taken afterwards, cure for coronary artery disease. I hope you live a long and healthy life.
Best regards
It is my opinion and my in my experience, you can live a completely normal life after stent placement. It is a safe and effective treatment for coronary artery disease. However, there are some things that should be taken into consideration. First, you have to be regular in taking your medication. There are certain drugs that are added to your therapy especially to keep these stents patent (such as, clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticagrelor, one of these added to aspirin). Second, there is always a probability of intrastent re-stenosis (a phenomenon that is produced by the innermost lining of the coronary arteries, which is charachterized by narrowing the stent). This phenomenon's probability to happen is 16-20% in cases when a bare metal stent is used, and approximately 4% when a drug-eluting stent (a bare metal stent plus a anti proliferative medication coating) is used. This probability applies to all people. Third, a body of studies has shown that the more stents are used, the greater the probability of re-stenosis is. Also, the narrower the artery and the smaller the diameter of the stent, the greater the probability of re-stenosis. In the end, I would like to say that stents are remedies for coronary artery plaques and can be considered, with simple precautions taken afterwards, cure for coronary artery disease. I hope you live a long and healthy life.
Best regards
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