The treatment of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the blood vessels) depends on the cause of the arteriosclerosis. Occlusions of the coronary vessels can be treated by cardiac catheterization, which is also used for diagnostics. Usually during the same session, a small balloon can be inserted into the narrowed area via the diagnostic catheter to expand the narrowed area.
In many cases, however, this only brings relief from the symptoms of arteriosclerosis for a short period of time, and the vessels often narrow and close up again after some time. For this reason, a so-called stent can also be inserted into the narrowed vessel. This is a mesh-like tube that is designed to keep the narrowed area open.
Stent of the newer generation are sometimes also treated with a radioactive substance, which should also try to keep the vessel open. What used to be the standard method for opening blocked coronary vessels is now only used in severe cases: bypass surgery (treatment of arteriosclerosis). If a circulatory disorder occurs in the brain due to increasingly occluded neck vessels, an attempt can also be made to make the vessels open again by means of expansion manoeuvres.
In the vast majority of cases, however, a constriction or occlusion of the smallest vessels in the brain area leads to the dizziness described above. In this case, blood circulation-promoting and blood-thinning drugs can also be used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis. They want to do actively even something against your Arteriosklerose?
with a medicamentous dissolution of the locked place can be tried during the procedure to increase the success rate with the treatment of the Arteriosklerose. Even after weeks of occlusion, the vessels can be reopened with drugs also known as thrombolytics. These drugs include tissue plasminogen activator (r-tPA), streptokinase or urokinase.
If the peripheral outflow tract is preserved in occluded vessels, which is the case in about 20% of vascular occlusions, a surgical procedure may be useful. These procedures include thrombendarteriectomy, which is mainly used for short-distance occlusions of the leg arteries. The occluded vessel is reopened with a ring stripper.
This procedure can also be combined with vascular dilatation. A bypass operation, in which a vessel is removed from another part of the body and diverted around the occluded vessel, is used for very severe vascular occlusions. The vessel that is most frequently used for this bypass operation is the magna saphenous vein (treatment of arteriosclerosis).
Plastic vessels can also be used in the treatment to restore the bypass circulation. If there is an acute occlusion of arteries, especially in the leg, the vessel must be reopened immediately to prevent the leg from having to be amputated. With all therapies, it should be noted that after treatment, the patient’s lifestyle must be adapted to the situation.
Thus, it is important to ensure that excessive cholesterol levels in the blood are reduced by medication in order to prevent a renewed vasoconstriction in the near future. This is where the drug group of statins and fibrates comes into play. The blood must also be made correspondingly thinner during treatment. This can be achieved with ASS, or Marcumar.
