How Your Doctor will Implant the Vascular Plug

1. The vascular plug may be used for a wide variety of occlusions of veins or arteries depending on the patient’s diagnosis and treatment plan. Reducing or eliminating blood flow to an area of the body by blocking, or occluding, a blood vessel has become an accepted treatment option for a wide range of circulatory and internal organ diseases. Vascular occlusion can be used for a number of reasons including:

- To reduce pressure on malformed or weakened blood vessels known as fistulas or aneurysms

- To reduce blood supply to benign or malignant tumors or growths in the body

- To reduce blood supply (and therefore the overall size) of an organ or area of the body prior to other therapies or procedures

- To reroute blood supply to a different blood vessel or part of the bod

2. The placement procedure typically takes place in a special room called a catheterization laboratory ( cath lab ) where many minimally invasive, non-surgical procedures are performed. The Plug is delivered to the occlusion site through a catheter, a small plastic tube used by an interventionalist to access the blood vessel and place the Plug using x-ray. The physician deploys the Plug to expand it, closing off the vessel.

An AMPLATZER® Vascular Plug placed in a blood vessel.

Depending on the procedure type, the patient may be able to go home that day or stay one night in the hospital. Before leaving the hospital, medical imaging may be used to make sure the Plug is positioned properly.

Before leaving the hospital, the doctor will provide guidelines for activities and prescribe medications.