How is coronary artery stenosis treated?

On one level, therefore, blockages in the coronary arteries lead to chest pain and heart attacks, and blockages in the brain's arteries lead to strokes. To address this level of disease, doctors began performing coronary artery bypass surgery over twenty-five years ago as a way of bringing more blood around the blocked arteries. In this procedure, a vein is taken from the patient's leg and spliced around the obstructed artery, thereby increasing blood flow to the heart. A more recent approach to treating closed arteries is called coronary angioplasty, in which a small balloon is inflated inside a blocked coronary artery, thereby "squishing" the blockage and widening the vessel, allowing more room for blood to flow to the heart. Bypass surgery, angioplasty, and cholesterol-lowering drugs do not address the deeper questions of why the blockages in the coronary arteries occur in the first place.