Heart Attack Treatments
If the cause of your chest pain is a heart attack, Banner Health staff can provide immediate options to protect and avoid further damage to your heart.
Treatments include:
Medications
Medications given right after the start of a heart attack may include:
- aspirin
- thrombolytic therapy ("clot busters")
- heparin
- other antiplatelet drugs
- any combination of the above
Interventional procedures
Many people will go straight from the emergency room to the cardiac catheterization laboratory to have angioplasty performed as quickly as possible.
During an angioplasty, also called a percutaneous coronary intervention, doctors insert a catheter with a special balloon into a blocked coronary artery. The balloon is inflated to open up the artery and restore blood flow to your heart. Then, a small wire mesh coil (stent) is usually inserted to keep the artery open.
Surgery
If necessary, coronary bypass surgery may be performed to restore the heart muscle's supply of blood. This procedure creates an alternative route for blood to go around a blocked coronary artery
