 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Nov 2002 Posts: 3,552 | A stent is a mesh tube, typically stainless, coated with a tissue attractant (aerial vessel tissue will grow into the mesh and keep it in place) placed inside an artery to open it up from occlusion.
Most stent procedures are used in the heart but sometimes they are placed in the carotid because of fibrosis in the arterial wall. It is not that common of a procedure.
Blood flow through the carotid is fairly easily checked by listening to the sounds of blood flow with a stethoscope.
I don't think that candy or food can get past your bronchia but fluids certainly can.
Gary Allsebrook
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Dx 11/22/02, SCC, 6 x 3 cm Polypoid tumor, rt tonsil, Stage III/IVA, T3N0M0 G1/2
Tx 1/28/03 - 3/19/03, Cisplatin ct x2, IMRT, bilateral, with boost, x35(69.96Gy)
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"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14 NIV)
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