In this BBC Health News article, Dr Duncan Ettles of the British Society of Interventional Radiology, discusses the major impact that the balloon angioplasty has had over the past five decades. This minimally invasive technique is now used in many organ systems by many disciplines of medicine as a less invasive alternative to surgery.
The article states "In the 1960's patients with a blocked artery would have required major open surgery and a hospital stay of a week or more. Half a century on, patients are treated in a matter of hours and return home the same day - and it's all thanks to the angioplasty procedure. Dr Duncan Ettles, says it has had a revolutionary impact on medicine. Instead of opening up blood vessels to remove a blockage, doctors can access and treat them simply by inserting a catheter into an artery and following its movements on an X-ray screen.
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