Coronary Angioplasty – Complications

Some factors that increase the patient’s risk for developing complications during angioplasty procedure are:

• Older age
• Female sex
• Presence of multiple clots in a single or multiple arteries
• Diabetes, congestive heart failure or left ventricular dysfunction in the patient
• Clots affecting the left main or an equivalent coronary artery
• Inadequate antiplatelet therapy
• Unstable angina pectoris i.e. angina occurring even at rest
• Angioplasty done immediately following thrombolytic therapy i.e. drugs administered to break down the clot

Complications of coronary angioplasty include:

• Abrupt block of the artery: This could occur if the artery goes into spasm, gets blocked by a blood clot or if the artery is damaged by the catheter. It may result in a heart attack during the procedure and require an emergency bypass surgery.
• Perforation of the artery may occur rarely
• Restenosis of the artery could occur, requiring a repeat procedure.
• Other complications of angioplasty include stroke, damage to the kidneys caused by the dye used during angiography, and bleeding and infection at the entry site of the catheter on the skin.
• Death could occur due to heart failure or occlusion of the coronary artery.