Stent
A tube designed to be inserted into a vessel or passageway to keep it open. Stents are inserted into narrowed coronary arteries to help keep them open after balloon angioplasty. The stent then allows the normal flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. Stents placed in narrowed carotid arteries (the vessels in the front of the neck that supply blood to the brain) appear useful in treating patients at elevated risk for stroke. Stents are also used in other structures such as the esophagus to treat a constriction, the ureters to maintain the drainage of urine from the kidneys, and the bile duct to keep it open.
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- STEP procedure
Serial transverse enteroplasty.
- Step therapy
The practice of beginning drug therapy for a medical condition with the most cost-effective and safest drug therapy and progressing to other more costly or risky therapy, only if necessary. The aims are to control costs and minimize risks. Also called step protocol.
- Stepfather
The husband of a woman who had a child by another man.
- Steppage gait
A manner of walking in which the advancing foot is lifted high so that the toes clear the ground. Steppage gait is a sign of foot-drop.
- Stereotactic
Referring to precise positioning in three-dimensional space. For example, biopsies, surgery, or radiation therapy can be done stereotactically.