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Restoring blood flow to your fully blocked coronary artery can be accomplished using a minimally invasive procedure, similar to what’s done with less severe blockages. However, getting through or around a full, sometimes rock-hard, blockage is what sets the CTO procedure apart.
It’s a much less invasive procedure than coronary artery bypass surgery, and if surgery isn’t an option for you, it can offer relief from chest pain, shortness of breath and other symptoms.
Opening a CTO is a highly specialized procedure. There are only a few places in the country that have the volume and success rate of Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute.
Our cardiologists use a variety of catheters and wires to help open your blockage.
As an example, if you need to take a detour off a highway, you may need to use side roads to get to your destination. In a similar way, Heart and Vascular Institute doctors can use alternate routes to reach the blockage.
Often, if one of your coronary arteries is blocked, your other coronary arteries will produce smaller collateral blood vessels to compensate.
Your doctor can sometimes use these newer blood vessels as alternative routes to access the blockage from the back side, where it is sometimes softer. In other cases, doctors may need to bypass the blockage by going through the artery wall at the blockage site.
The success rate is 75%-80%.
Recovery is similar to a standard cardiac catheterization procedure. It is an outpatient procedure, but some patients may require an overnight stay.
Patients follow up with a cardiology nurse practitioner about 2-4 weeks after the procedure, followed by visits with their regular cardiologist or interventional cardiologist.