Bioabsorbable heart stent implantation succeeds in Guangzhou

A bioabsorbable heart stent was recently implanted at the Guangzhou Development District Hospital for the second time. The operation only took twenty minutes and resulted in elimination of all chest pain.

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is called the most lethal disease to human beings and the heart stent procedure brings hope to many patients.

The life-saving heart stent, however, is regarded as a foreign object because it remains in the human body once implanted.

A 48-year-old man suffering from CAD was admitted to Guangzhou Development District Hospital because of repeated chest pain. Coronary arteriography indicated that the middle part of his left anterior descending artery was severely narrowed with a stenosis rate of 85 percent, which was a severe condition making revascularization imperative.

But the patient was unwilling to put a non-biodegradable stent in his blood vessels. By searching for more information, he learned that the most cutting-edge technology of CAD treatment is a bioabsorbable stent procedure.

Step 1: Locating the obstruction by coronary arteriography [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Step 2: Operating fiber wire through blood vessels  [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Step 3: The heart stent before implantation [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Effect of the operation [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The procedure only takes 20 minutes. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The bioabsorbable stent is considered the fourth revolution in percutaneous coronary artery treatment and its unique design offers promising prospects of application compared with percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or bare-metal or drug-eluting stents.

As a degradable material, after the heart stent is implanted into patient's body, it can be absorbed over the course of the next three years. It turns "Recanalization" into "Arterial Reconstruction", enabling patients' blood vessels to regain normal vasomotor function.

The delivery catheter carries a heart stent [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

After the stent is implanted, it can be fully absorbed by the human body. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The successful implantation was the fifth in Guangdong province and the second in Guangzhou. The availability of this procedure fills a technical gap in areas east of Guangzhou and in the Dongguan area. 

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