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CTEPH care requires a high level of experience. At Stanford Health Care, our skilled team delivers world-class care and compassionate support and guidance. From diagnosis and treatment to ongoing monitoring, we’re here for you.
- Specialized expertise: Our Chest Clinic is one of the best in the nation and includes physicians who specialize in CTEPH.
- Groundbreaking treatment: We offer pulmonary thromboendarterectomy (PTE), a surgical procedure that can cure CTEPH or significantly slow its progress.
- Collaborative team: Our multispecialty team of pulmonary and cardiovascular doctors, surgeons, and radiologists work together to coordinate your care.
- Support services: You have access to social workers who provide education, counseling, and community resource referrals to help you and your family cope with the challenges of CTEPH.
- Convenient care: In our CTEPH clinic, you see multiple experts during a single visit, saving you time and streamlining your care.
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Types of CTEPH Treatments
CTEPH is a serious but treatable condition. Surgery is the gold standard of CTEPH care. If you are not eligible for surgery, we offer minimally invasive treatment and medications. At Stanford Health Care, our multidisciplinary team reviews your case to make a correct diagnosis and develop a treatment plan.
PTE is a complex surgery offered only at select medical centers nationwide. It involves opening your chest to access your pulmonary arteries. The surgeon removes the blood clots from your arteries, then closes the incision. For some people, PTE cures CTEPH, but the clots can return.
Not everyone is able to have PTE surgery. The main criteria for PTE eligibility include:
- Clot location: Clots must be in the larger pulmonary arteries so the surgeon can reach them.
- Overall health: You must be healthy enough to undergo surgery. The factors we consider include your age, other health conditions, and heart and lung function.
Learn more about pulmonary thromboendarterectomy.
If you are not eligible for PTE, balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) may be an option. We also use BPA to unblock smaller pulmonary arteries we cannot reach with PTE surgery. In BPA, an interventional cardiologist:
- Inserts a thin tube (catheter) into a vein in your groin
- Guides the catheter to the narrowed section of the pulmonary artery
- Passes a deflated balloon to the area and inflates the balloon to open the blockage
Medications are an important part of CTEPH care—alone or in combination with PTE and BPA. Common medications we prescribe include:
- Anticoagulants (blood thinners): These medications prevent the formation of blood clots and can stop existing clots from getting bigger.
- Vasodilators: These medications relax the walls of your blood vessels to lower blood pressure. Riociguat, a vasodilator, is the only FDA-approved medication specifically for CTEPH. It improves blood flow by relaxing the blood vessels in your lungs.
To schedule an appointment with a CTEPH specialist, call 650-725-7061.