Stenting & Restenosis
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 6:00 pm
Hello everyone,
I had balloon angioplasty in Poland in the middle of March after which I had a great improvement for about two weeks. Afterward most of my improvement went away and I became even worse than before the procedure. Last Thursday I had venography locally (Albany) that found out one more narrowing of about 50-60% at the top of my left jugular vein in addition to the two narrowings the docs found in Poland (one of the bottom of the left and one of the right jugular). Is it possible that the third narrowing appeared as a result of the angioplasty in Poland? I doubt it that they'd miss something like that in Poland and I am afraid it is a result of the angioplasty. But my much bigger concern is that after the 2nd angioplasty here I only had one day, which was the day right after the procedure, that I felt a big improvement of symptoms. Since then I have been feeling just like before the procedure. Of course, I started to think I have restenosis again and I need stenting. But today I talked to the doctor and he expressed the opinion that stenting may be too risky in my case because my veins seem to restenose very fast and the stent(s) may not be able to hold them. He said that if the stent collapses they have no options at all how to help me. I know that there are many people who had stents in Poland and in Stanford (with even bigger stenosis than mine which is about 50% at the three narrowings and Dr Dake didn't do just ballooning at first to check if and how quickly these veins would restenose and decide if a stent is a good option). I would really appreciate any opinion. Please share your experience with stenting! Has anyone had a similar problem? I forgot to mention that the doctor said he had a patient whose stent collapsed. Thank you so much in advance!
I had balloon angioplasty in Poland in the middle of March after which I had a great improvement for about two weeks. Afterward most of my improvement went away and I became even worse than before the procedure. Last Thursday I had venography locally (Albany) that found out one more narrowing of about 50-60% at the top of my left jugular vein in addition to the two narrowings the docs found in Poland (one of the bottom of the left and one of the right jugular). Is it possible that the third narrowing appeared as a result of the angioplasty in Poland? I doubt it that they'd miss something like that in Poland and I am afraid it is a result of the angioplasty. But my much bigger concern is that after the 2nd angioplasty here I only had one day, which was the day right after the procedure, that I felt a big improvement of symptoms. Since then I have been feeling just like before the procedure. Of course, I started to think I have restenosis again and I need stenting. But today I talked to the doctor and he expressed the opinion that stenting may be too risky in my case because my veins seem to restenose very fast and the stent(s) may not be able to hold them. He said that if the stent collapses they have no options at all how to help me. I know that there are many people who had stents in Poland and in Stanford (with even bigger stenosis than mine which is about 50% at the three narrowings and Dr Dake didn't do just ballooning at first to check if and how quickly these veins would restenose and decide if a stent is a good option). I would really appreciate any opinion. Please share your experience with stenting! Has anyone had a similar problem? I forgot to mention that the doctor said he had a patient whose stent collapsed. Thank you so much in advance!