After the heart stent operation, the patient will not live long? Doctor decides to tell the truth
Lao Sun has been suffering from back pain and chest tightness recently. He suspects that it is related to the heart stent surgery done half a year ago.
Before the stent was placed, although Lao Sun was also physically uncomfortable, he was not as tired as he is now. He was worried that the stent would worsen his disease and shorten his life.
A week later, his symptoms became more and more serious, so he asked his son to take him back to the hospital for an explanation.
Many heart disease patients, like Lao Sun, have doubts about heart stent technology. Is a heart stent a tricky technology? Let's talk about it today.
01
Heart stents: a great technology
Cardiac stent technology first appeared in the 1980s. It is a method of placing a stent in the stenotic area of the coronary artery to expand the narrowed blood vessel, thereby improving myocardial blood supply.
From the medical history, this is a great technology. Its main function is to dredge arteries and blood vessels, which plays an important role in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction and other diseases, and has saved the lives of countless patients. Of course, no technology can be abused and has its indications, and cardiac stents are no exception. Not all heart disease patients need cardiac stents.
02
When is a heart stent necessary?
First, patients with acute coronary syndromes, including acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina pectoris, are the most likely candidates for cardiac stenting. Most of the blood vessels in these patients are in a state of severe stenosis and are almost blocked. Placing stents to open the blood vessels is the best way to save lives at risk, which can greatly reduce the mortality rate.
Even if some patients have less than 70% vascular stenosis, which does not seem that serious, the extremely unstable plates can easily rupture and cause blood clots to accumulate, which is still quite dangerous, so such patients should also be stented.
Second, patients with stable angina pectoris, that is, patients who have narrowed blood vessels and experience chest pain after exercise, but are not at risk of myocardial infarction in the short term.
If the vascular stenosis exceeds 90%, the stent must be installed; if the vascular stenosis is less than 90%, but there is severe ischemia or cardiac insufficiency, the stent must also be installed; if the vascular stenosis is between 70% and 90%, the stent must be installed. There is also no severe ischemia, but standard medical therapy cannot effectively control angina pectoris, and stents can also be installed to improve symptoms, but it should be noted that this is not a means to improve survival or improve prognosis, but mostly to relieve symptoms.
03
How long can you live with a heart stent?
Many patients have great doubts about cardiac stents, thinking that the placement of cardiac stents will affect their life expectancy.
Heart stents are not the key to a patient's lifespan. Stent placement is only for dredging blood vessels. It is a local treatment method and cannot fundamentally treat coronary heart disease. The life expectancy of patients after cardiac stent surgery is determined by the patient's heart disease condition, as well as postoperative medication compliance and self-management.
Academician Zhong Nanshan suffered a myocardial infarction in 2004 due to severe overdraft, and installed a stent. Now, 16 years later, Zhong Lao is 84 years old, and he is still insisting on fitness and a healthy life.
Cardiac stents are only temporary relief. To effectively prolong life, patients should pay attention to maintenance after stent surgery.
On the one hand, patients should still adhere to anticoagulation therapy after stent surgery, because there may be problems such as restenosis or stent thrombosis, and antiplatelet drugs must be taken for life; at the same time, regular review should be maintained to be alert to the recurrence of coronary heart disease.
On the other hand, patients should also develop good living habits to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, including quitting smoking and drinking, adhering to moderate exercise, avoiding overwork, and controlling three hyperemias.
It must be remembered that cardiac stents will not affect life expectancy, but they are not a radical cure, and you cannot sit back and relax after surgery.
04
Extension: Answers to Heart Stents
Cardiac stents are outdated technologies that have been eliminated by foreign countries?
There was an article circulating on the Internet before, advocating that cardiac stent technology has long been eliminated in foreign countries, and that it is a "time bomb" when placed in blood vessels.
This claim is simply nonsense. This technology is currently one of the most common methods for the treatment of coronary heart disease, and has matured both at home and abroad. Taking the United States as an example, the United States, with a population of 300 million, has more than 1 million cardiac stent operations every year, while my country has more than 600,000 cardiac stent operations every year. Whether at home or abroad, cardiac stent technology is still the most commonly used technology.
After the stent is placed, the medicine cannot be stopped?
Some patients also doubt that they cannot stop the drug for life after the heart stent is placed, which is also a view that lacks medical common sense. Coronary heart disease is a chronic disease. Regardless of whether the patient has taken interventional therapy such as stent or bypass, lifelong medication to adjust blood viscosity is necessary. This is the need for treatment, and it has nothing to do with whether a stent is placed or not.
References:
1 Shen Farong. Expert clarification: "Four Deadly Sins" of Cardiac Stent Surgery. Health Care and Life. 2014 Issue 12
2 Heart stents are not terrible. Weifang Evening News. February 12, 2015
3 Hu Shengshou, Gao Runlin, Liu Lisheng, etc. Outline of "China Cardiovascular Disease Report 2018" [J]. Chinese Journal of Circulation, 2019, 34: 209-220.