CSBJ Daily

Penrose Hospital has begun offering a new procedure that uses blood vessel stents to treat blockages that could lead to strokes.

A stent is a small hollow tube of meshed metal that is collapsed down into a very small straw-like tube called a catheter.

Until recently, the only method of treating blocked arteries to prevent strokes was a major surgery called carotid endarterectomy in which an incision is made on the neck and the artery opened up with a scalpel to remove the blockage by hand.

Strokes are the third leading cause of death annually in the United States, and the leading cause of disability in the U.S. There are more than 750,000 strokes in the country each year and an even larger number of “mini-strokes,” also known as transient ischemic attacks.