Angioplasty: Preventative & Emergency
Angioplasty is a method of clearing artery blockage to increase blood circulation and to avoid further damage from a heart attack. Since early 2006, Allegiance Health’s Cardiac Catheterization team has performed coronary angioplasty on an emergency basis, and in 2008, began offering this procedure to patients on a preventative basis.
A successful angioplasty program can be measured in door-to-balloon time--or the time between the patient’s arrival in the Emergency Department and having an angioplasty procedure. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, deaths are higher in heart attack patients who have not received angioplasty within 90 minutes.
Since July 2006, the door-to-balloon time at Allegiance Health has averaged 82 minutes, consistently better than the nationally recommended standards.