Eli5: How do doctors save people from a heart attack?
In: Biology
The immediate treatment is to give the person medications to break up any clots in the arteries of the heart and to widen the blood vessels to restore blood flow. The next step is to do some kind of imaging of the heart (CT, MRI, angiogram…etc) to show which blood vessels in the hear are blocked and the extent of the blockage. Then, they can do surgery if necessary. Typically, this will be either to place a stent or a bypass. A stent is a small hollow mesh tube that the surgeon will place it the blocked artery. The mesh tube expands and keeps the artery open. For a bypass, the surgeon will take small blood vessels from elsewhere in your body and graft them to the heart in a path that goes around (aka bypasses) the blocked artery.
My husband had a right coronary heart attack at 26 years old. They did imaging and had a Stent placed via an artery in his leg within 7 minutes of our arrival in the ER room which opened up the artery with the clot. He felt immediate relief. He also is on lifelong medication as his heart attack was caused by a genetic cholesterol condition.
Treatment may vary depending on the location and number of clots and blockages.
They give them medications to prevent any clots from getting worse, treat their pain, and slow their heart rate. They take them to a procedure room where they sedate the patient and then stick a wire with a stent on it and work their way into the artery that is clogged. Then they open up the stent and thus open up the artery, restoring blood flow to the heart.
Latest Answers