What Is The Recovery Time After Stent Insertion Post Heart Attack?

Posted on Wed, 9 Jul 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 9 Jul 2014 Answered on

Wed, 30 Jul 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : Mother-in-law, 88.5 years, just had heart attack, and had pain after hospital medication. Put in one stent this week and now and now surgeons say she needs 2 more. Why not do all three-costs for separate operations? What is recovery time? She is Canadian and here on visit with insurance, but company says she should return to home within 30 days for additional stents. Still in hospital and will need recovery time. She is stressed and questionable and she cannot fly without daughter nor be unaccompanied and when, it's a 3.5 hour flight plus 5 hours of travel time.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Prasad J (8 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Recovery period depends on comorbidities...

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

I went through the details provided with diligence. Though I am not a cardiologist who perform angioplasty / stenting, but I do monitor patients at intensive care units post stenting. I shall answer your questions based on my experience at this centre.

1. It's not difficult to put all 3 stents in one setting. Interventional cardiologist here in XXXXXXX do place more than 2 stents during a single procedure whenever required. Perhaps there were fresh artery blocks after the first stent was inserted which prompted the doctors to plan the second ones.
If she is doing well now, you can discuss about inserting both the stents together now.

2. Recovery period is individualized. It all depends on other comorbid conditions. If there are no untoward incidents/complications such as infection during the post op period, she should be back to her normal self in 2-3 weeks time.

3. She might require a fitness to fly. Please ask her doctors about it.

Hope this answers your question. Let me know if you need clarifications.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar