“What causes chest pain after stent placement?”

Chest pain after stent placement is unusual. There can be soreness from the procedure but this is also rare. If the pain is similar to the pre procedure pain then there may be a complication such as incorrect placement or incorrect size of the stent. There could also be a tear in the arterial wall, which can usually be corrected with another stent. More serious complications can arise such as heart attack or embolus which is a clot. These are infrequent and can usually be treated successfully.

Chest pain after stent placement may be due to acute or subacute thrombosis of the stent. It is also possible for stents to thrombose anywhere from six months to over a year after placement. These events have become relatively rare with the newer stents and the increasing expertise of the interventionalists implanting the stents. Another reason and probably a more likely reason for chest pain after a stent implant is that there are one or more blockages in the arteries supplying the heart with blood that have become critically blocked since the stent placement or maybe were blocked at the time of the stent placement and should have been stented as well. If thr chest pain is unrelated to coronary artery disease then there are many possible causes.