bypass question

[pjcag]

I have 12 stents in my LAD and the last 2 gave no relief. we have discussed bypass next..I went to my pulmonologist this week to have my asthma inhaler changed and I was discussing with her. She said that may be too many stents to bypass! She said they have to have enough unstinted artery to "tie" too. I'm sort of bothered by this...I go back to Cardio next week and I will ask him about it...have any of you had a lot of stents in the same artery and then had a successful bypass? I mean, what would the options be if you can't have bypass?

[Chappychap]

I went straight to a bypass without any stents, so I can't talk from personal experience. However, while in hospital waiting for a bypass the majority of my fellow patients did have previous stents, and I remember a conversation along the lines that surgeons are well aware that stents are very often a precursor to a bypass, consequently they don't tend to stent in the area where a new artery would be grafted. Unless your pulmonologist was commenting directly from your X Rays I'd tend to disregard their comments, in fact I'd still disregard such negativity as its 100% the cardiac surgeon's call, not the pulmonologist's!

[thetidders]

I’ve had a triple bypass but like Chappychap I went straight to a triple bypass & didn’t have any stents. However a neighbour of mine had multiple stents before she ended up having to have a quadruple bypass so try not to worry, I’m sure the cardiac surgeon will have had plenty of experience in doing bypass operations when stents are in the arteries. Hope everything goes well when you see the cardiologist next week.

Jean

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

A friend had stents over twenty years ago but after kidney failure and a transplant developed angina. Last year only six months post transplant he had a double bypass with no real issues.

Be guided by your cardiologist who knows the location of the stents and where the problem lies. Sometimes (as BBC says) other reroutes are available.