FlowCardia

Open-heart surgery is a surgical procedure that involves making a midline incision in the sternum (breast bone) to access the heart. The sternum is split in half and pulled back with retractors to expose the heart. The heart can then be placed on a bypass machine to keep oxygenated blood moving through the body, and further surgery on the heart can be performed.

Bypass graft surgery creates new pathways around narrowed or blocked arteries so that more blood and oxygen flows to the heart muscle or to the extremities. This surgery uses segments of veins or arteries taken from another part of the body to bypass arteries that are blocked or narrowed. It diverts blood flow past the blockage in the artery allowing more blood and oxygen to flow to the heart or extremities (legs or feet).

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is a procedure that opens up narrowed or blocked segments of the arteries that supply blood to your heart muscle - the coronary arteries; or your legs and feet – the peripheral arteries. A catheter with an empty balloon on its tip is guided into the narrowed part of the artery. The balloon is inflated to open the narrowed artery and flatten the plaque against the artery wall.

A stent is a small, self-expanding wire mesh tube that is used to keep an artery that has been narrowed by plaque buildup open. It is used in the procedure called balloon angioplasty. The stent is collapsed to a small diameter and put over a balloon catheter. It's then moved into the area of the blockage. When the balloon is inflated, the stent expands, locks in place and forms a "scaffold" that holds the artery open. The stent stays in the artery permanently, holding it open and improving blood flow through the artery. This relieves symptoms (usually chest pain).