Aspirus provides world-class heart and vascular services, such as angioplasty. Angioplasty is a procedure to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. These blood vessels are called the coronary arteries.
During the procedure, a cardiologist uses a thin wire catheter to access a diseased vessel. A balloon on the tip of the catheter is inflated to open the blockage. In some cases, a tiny metal coil called a stent is expanded inside the blocked vessel and left in place to keep it from re-narrowing.