Stents - After Getting a Stent - After Getting a Stent

Before you leave the hospital, you will be given instructions that include:

• Which medicines to take. You will need to take medicine to prevent a blood clots from forming in the stent. You may need to take other medicines for different reasons. Follow your doctor’s instructions carefully.
• When to resume normal physical activity. Most people are able to return to work within a few days to a week.
• When to make a follow-up appointment. Your doctor will need to check on your progress and make sure there are no complications.

Sometimes there are complications from a stenting procedure in an artery. These complications may include:

• Allergic reaction to the dye used to show the blood vessels by X-ray
• Arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat
• Bleeding or discomfort where the catheter was inserted
• Damage to blood vessels from the catheter
• Infection
• Rarely, damage to the kidney from the contrast dye

More serious or life-threatening complications may occur during a stenting procedure, but these are rare. People who have had other procedures to treat blocked arteries or who have congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, or diabetes, are usually at higher risk for complications, which may include:

• Blood flow being cut off from the gut or the lower part of the body during an aortic aneurysm repair
• Heart attack
• Rupture of the aortic aneurysm
• Stroke
• Tear in the artery

Possible complications from a stenting procedure in an airway may include:

• Coughing up blood
• Sore mouth, sore throat, or hoarse voice

Less common but serious complications may include:

• Arrhythmia
• Needing a tracheostomy
• Pneumothorax
• Respiratory failure
• Sudden cardiac arrest

• Living With a Stent will discuss possible complications of living with a stent or stent graft.