Why Might I Still Experience Chest Pain After Having a Stent Placed?

A stent is placed to open a blocked part of a heart artery, but it doesn't fix all the problems that might be causing chest pain. One reason is that you could have narrowing in other nearby arteries that were not treated during the stenting. Sometimes, the artery where the stent was placed may become narrow again, a condition called in-stent restenosis. In other cases, the heart muscle might still be under stress because of factors such as spasms in the artery or other ongoing heart issues. It’s also possible that the chest pain could be coming from the muscles or nerves around the heart that were affected during or after the procedure. These possibilities mean that even after the stent is in place, chest pain may still occur. It is important to share these symptoms with your doctor so that they can check for any changes, run further tests, and work on a plan to help keep your heart healthy and relieve your pain.