Your doctor may recommend PTCA if prescribed medications and lifestyle changes have not been enough to reduce the effects of the blocked arteries. Your doctor might also recommend this procedure if your symptoms, including chest pain and shortness of breath, are getting worse.
The success rate of this procedure is very high (around 90%) and the risk of complications is very low. Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure that does not need the use of general anaesthesia.
A successful angioplasty can reduce your symptoms (chest pain), allow you to resume normal activity and increase your chances of long-term survival.
New developments in PTCA
Percutaneous can now be performed using CorPath GRX, a robotic-assisted platform. Using CorPath GRX, your doctor can utilise a set of joysticks and touchscreen controls to move devices within the platform’s robotic arm with better precision, to the point of sub-millimetre measurement and 1-millimetre movement.