From the Member Sections | The Evolution of Practice in Structural Disease/Valve Treatment: A Triumph of Collaboration – American College of Cardiology
The first successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty was performed by Andreas Gruentzig, MD, in September 1977. Despite careful lesion selection, the initial equipment consisted of crude guiding catheters that were difficult to maneuver and non-over-the-wire balloon catheters with a leading short, shapeable wire tip. The challenges created by equipment limitations plus the recognition that balloon-dilated lesions could acutely occlude (there were no stents) and lead to myocardial infarction
