Cryoplasty
For many patients with vascular disease, walking one city block is impossible. The pain in the legs and feet associated with vascular disease is often unbearable; the patient must stop and rest to relieve the pain, which returns upon resumption of exercise. The balloon angioplasty procedure does not always offer long-term success in the legs, especially in the femoral artery in the thigh. For reasons still unknown to physicians, this artery is prone to renarrowing after interventional procedures to open it – as many as 60 percent of patients will experience reoccurring blockages. Stents, which could help support the artery walls, are not a desirable option in this artery because scar tissue is highly likely to form within the stent, causing further blockages. Bypass surgery is costly and invasive, and grafts to this artery are prone to occlusion themselves. Often, vascular disease patients have no option for bypass surgery because the saphenous vein has been used previously to bypass the coronaries.
For many patients with vascular disease, walking one city block is impossible. The pain in the legs and feet associated with vascular disease is often unbearable; the patient must stop and rest to relieve the pain, which returns upon resumption of exercise. The balloon angioplasty procedure does not always offer long-term success in the legs, especially in the femoral artery in the thigh. For reasons still unknown to physicians, this artery is prone to renarrowing after interventional procedures to open it – as many as 60 percent of patients will experience reoccurring blockages. Stents, which could help support the artery walls, are not a desirable option in this artery because scar tissue is highly likely to form within the stent, causing further blockages. Bypass surgery is costly and invasive, and grafts to this artery are prone to occlusion themselves. Often, vascular disease patients have no option for bypass surgery because the saphenous vein has been used previously to bypass the coronaries.
