Uddhav might need one more angioplasty in the future: doctor

On Friday morning, Shiv Sena executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, 52, underwent a three-hour angioplasty procedure at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra to clear three blockages in his heart.

On Friday morning, Shiv Sena executive president, Uddhav Thackeray, 52, underwent a three-hour angioplasty procedure at Lilavati Hospital in Bandra to clear three blockages in his heart.

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In an angioplasty, a balloon is pushed into a blood vessel to flatten the blockage, leaving a stent to open the narrowed or blocked artery.

Sources at the hospital said that during the angioplasty procedure, doctors diagnosed another “insignificant” blockage in his heart, which did not require immediate medical attention. “He might require another angioplasty procedure for the blockage in the future,” said a doctor from the hospital.

Both the left and right arteries had a 100% blockage each. “Two stents were placed in each of these blocked regions to open the blocked arteries,” said a member of the team of doctors that attended to Thackeray. A fifth stent was placed to clear the third blockage in the left artery.

“There is no cap on the number of stents that a doctor can insert. However, each stent has its own re-blocking rate depending on its length and size. Multiple stenting can lead to thrombosis (blood clot formation in the vessel),” said Dr Hasmukh Ravat, senior cardiologist, Fortis Hospital, Mulund. Dr Ravat added that if too many long stents are placed, performing a bypass surgery in the future is difficult.

A team of doctors including cardiologist Dr Ajit Menon, Dr Matthew Samuel Kalarickal and Dr Ajit Desai, intensivists Dr Prakash Jindania and Dr Samad Ansari and cardiac surgeon Om Prakash Jaiswal along with Dr Jalil Parkar attended to him.