Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Carotid angioplasty (kuh-ROT-id AN-jee-oh-plas-tee) is a procedure that opens clogged arteries to prevent or treat stroke. The carotid arteries are located on each side of your neck and are the main arteries supplying blood to your brain. The procedure involves temporarily inserting and inflating a tiny balloon where your carotid artery is clogged to widen the artery.
Carotid angioplasty is often combined with the placement of a small metal coil called a stent in the clogged artery. The stent helps prop the artery open and decreases the chance of it narrowing again. Carotid angioplasty and stenting may be used when traditional carotid surgery isn't feasible or is too risky.
- Lanzino G, et al. Treatment of carotid artery stenosis: Medical therapy, surgery or stenting? Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2009;84:362.
- Greelish JP, et al. Carotid angioplasty and stenting. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed April 9, 2009.
- Riles TS, et al. Cerebrovascular disease. In: Townsend CM Jr, et al. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Elsevier Saunders; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/130704983-4/0/1565/619.html?tocnode=54739952&fromURL=619.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3675-3..50068-X_3758. Accessed April 9, 2009.
- Sacco RL, et al. Primary prevention of ischemic stroke. Stroke. 2006;37:577.
- Angioplasty and vascular stenting. Radiological Society of North America. http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=angioplasty. Accessed April 10, 2009.
- Carotid artery disease. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/catd/catd_all.html. Accessed April 14, 2009.
