While adding a stent over the one already placed in the artery may be uncommon, doctors say it cannot be entirely ruled out.
Doctors at BGS Gleaneagles Global Hospital on Friday inserted three stents inside the stents on the 110-year-old Siddaganga pontiff, Shivakumara Swami.
A stent is placed whenever the artery is blocked. The stents themselves could be blocked when tissues grow around them and into the stent acting as a mesh, called repeated revascularisation.
"When this happens, another stent has to be inserted," said Dr C N Manjunath, director, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research.
Dr Adil Sadiq, senior consultant and department head of Adult Cardiac Surgery, Sakra World Hospital, said active diseases can cause the repetition of blocks in the arteries. It could be an inflammation of tissue or deposition of smooth muscles or cholesterol.
"Inserting one stent over another will not be possible. The better solution would be bypass surgery," he added.
Dr Sadiq said the bypass surgeries are at least 10% more complicated than inserting a stent for the first time.
Several cardiology researches have shown that the cost of repeat revascularisation is significantly higher than inserting the stent for the first time.
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