Bill Clinton is reportedly recovering well after an angioplasty and stent placement yesterday for a clogged artery to his heart.  Dr. Sean D. Lavine from the Endovascular Center says, this same kind of procedure is done when people get narrowing in arteries in the blood vessels that supply the brain.  Rather than causing chest pain or a heart attack though, these kinds of blockages can cause a stroke.  Dr. Lavine explains how this procedure is done, “A catheter is usually inserted into the groin and snaked up through ever smaller blood vessels until it reaches the clogged artery, whether in the heart, neck or brain.  Once there, using X-Ray guidance and tiny instruments, the endovascular surgeon can clear the artery and keep it open by placing a flexible metal tube there called a stent. This replaces the need for an open surgical procedure in many cases”

To learn more about this procedure see our previous blog: Endovascular Surgery: To Clot Or Not To Clot

See the original news articles about Bill Clinton in the Columbia Spectator and the New York Times.