Treatment for Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease kills over one hundred and ten thousand people on an annual basis in England alone, due to the affects of this condition nearly one and a half million people suffer with angina and 275,000 have heart attacks annually also.

These figures represent the dilemma facing the medical community as the numbers being affected by coronary heart disease are growing rapidly.

Advances in technology have helped to find medical treatments to help combat the amount of people dying with this condition every year. Below is a list of surgical and non-surgical treatments that can be carried out to successfully alleviate coronary heart disease.

Non-surgical treatments

Aspirin - Aspirin may seem like a strange choice of treatment for coronary heart disease, but it is actually a very strong medication for use against this condition. Aspirin actually thins the blood so it makes it more difficult for the blood to clot in the arteries, this can dramatically reduce the risks of a heart attack.

Beta-blockers - This medication is great for reducing a person blood pressure and heart rate. The effect this can have on a persons body is quite astounding, because the blood pressure and heart rate have lowered, the heart will not demand so much oxygen and it will reduce the strain on the heart, which will help combat the chances of a heart attack.

Nitroglycerin - Nitroglycerin reduces the hearts demand for oxygen and dilates the coronary arteries improving the blood flow that carries oxygen to the heart. Nitroglycerin can be administered in the short term through an oral spray, or long term through tablets and skin patches.

Surgical treatments

Coronary angioplasty - A sturdy tube is passed through an artery found in the leg or arm and an extremely thin guide is passed through the tube all the way through the body to the coronary artery. After this has been completed a smaller tube, with a balloon on the end, is threaded through the artery in the leg or arm, over the guide, and into the coronary artery. Once in place the balloon is inflated to improve the flow of blood around the body by widening the artery.

Atherectomy - Part of the coronary disease is a build up of inflamed tissue in the artery, called plaque. When the plaque becomes more solid in texture a coronary angioplasty cannot be done so an Atherectomy has to be completed instead. During Atherectomy surgery the surgeon will remove the plaque by cutting it away with a special tool or using a special laser to burn the plaque away.

This procedure is carried out in much the same way as the Coronary angioplasty by gaining access to the coronary artery through the arm or upper leg.

There are other surgical treatments that can be carried out for Coronary heart disease like Brachytherapy, which is a type of radiation therapy where a tiny source of radiation is placed in the artery to kill the plaque tissue. Another surgery is implanting a stent, which is a small metal tube with holes into the artery to stop the artery from narrowing for a period of time.