Asked & Answered Podcast
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care's general and interventional cardiologist, Dr. Alexander Postalian, answers patients' questions about cardiovascular health.
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Asked and Answered.
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Asked & Answered Podcast
My Doctor Says I Need Quadruple Bypass Surgery. Why Can’t I Have Stents Instead?
On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Alexander Postalian will discuss the differences between a quadruple bypass surgery and a receiving a stent.
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The next question. My father had a quadruple bypass when he was 46. Mm-hmm. Pretty young. My doctor tells me that I have the same problem and wants me to have surgery as well. Why can't I have stents instead? Hello, my name is Alexander Post Stallion. I'm an interventional cardiologist here at the Texas Art Institute in Houston, Texas. And welcome to Asked and Answered, where we try to answer, uh, patient questions that are common and some that are not so common. And, uh, hopefully we can make sense of, uh, some problems that some folks are having. Difficult question. We've been trying to answer that one for a long time. We've done many, many studies, so stents do very well if the blockage is of a certain characteristic that allows the stent to stay open. If you have many blockages, or the blockages are very long, very tough, et cetera, et cetera. Bypasses, which is surgical fix, can last longer. So we have a set of scores and things that we look at to decide who needs stents and who needs bypass. Sometimes it's obvious you would do better with a stent. Sometimes it's obvious you would do better with surgery, and there's a lot of gray, uh, area. So, again, and I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again, but it is what it is. There's, it depends on your specific case. So, uh, this is something that you should talk to your cardiologist, your surgeon, and if you have questions, you can always look for a second opinion. We never get offended when those happen. Well, this has been great. This has been a pleasure to be here. You know, I, I love doing this, so please send any questions. It can be anything cardiology related, high blood pressure, diet, medications, testing, valve issues, pacemaker issues, heart failure issues, uh, exercise, you know, questions about limitation or what can you do, et cetera. Um, just send it all. We'll be happy to look it over. Maybe they'll feature in our next, uh, session here. And again, this is a general discussion, so if you have any symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, it's always good to talk to your doctor and remember that every patient is an individual. So while we can make general recommendations in the end, we always make an individual recommendation for a specific patient. So when you're watching something, asking a question, just keep keep that in mind. We're giving you a general recommendation, but if you want a specific one, talk to your doctor.
