ANGIOPLASTY

noun (Health and Fitness) An operation to repair a damaged blood vessel or to unblock a coronary artery. Etymology: A compound formed on classical roots: angio- is the Latinized form of a Greek word, aggeion, meaning 'a vessel'; -plasty comes from Greek plastia, 'moulding, formation'. History and Usage: Angioplasty has been known as a medical term since the twenties, but came into the news during the eighties particularly as a result of the development of two new techniques for carrying it out. Balloon angioplasty, available since the mid eighties, involves passing a tiny balloon up the patient's arteries and inflating it to remove blood clots or other blockages. Laser angioplasty, still in its experimental stages in the late eighties, makes use of lasers to burn away blockages, and is designed to be minimally invasive. The development of these techniques has meant that expensive heart surgery under general anaesthetic can now often be avoided, with angioplasty taking place instead under local anaesthetic. Angioplasty by these new means has therefore been vaunted in the popular science press as a very significant medical advance. Arterial lesions would remain at the center of medical interest in coronary heart disease for decades to come. Cholesterol-lowering diets would aim to slow their growth; bypass surgery would attempt to route blood around them; in angioplasty, a tiny balloon would squeeze the lesions open. Atlantic Sept. 1989, p. 39