Coronary Angioplasty Side Effects and Warnings

Possible Complications

If you are planning to have an angioplasty, your doctor will review a list of possible complications which may include:

• Bleeding at the point of catheter insertion

• Damage to the walls of arteries, causing you to need additional procedures or surgery

• Heart attack or arrhythmia (abnormal heart beats)

• Allergic reaction to x-ray dye

• Blood clot formation

• Infection

Some factors that may increase the risk of complications include:

• Allergies to medicines, shellfish, or x-ray dye

• Obesity

• Smoking

• Bleeding disorder

• Age: 60 or older

• Recent pneumonia

• Recent heart attack

• Diabetes

• Kidney disease

Call Your Doctor

After you leave the hospital, contact your doctor if any of the following occurs:

• Signs of infection, including fever and chills
• Redness, swelling, increasing pain, excessive bleeding, or any discharge from the incision site
• Your arm or leg becomes painful, blue, cold, numb, tingly, swollen, or increasingly bruised
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Pain that you cannot control with the medicines you have been given
• Cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
• Joint pain, fatigue, stiffness, rash, or other new symptoms

In case of an emergency, CALL 911.