Tablets you’ll need to take after coronary stenting

Hi Dr. Nachar, I think you were going to educate us a little bit on what the typical medicines you need after you've had coronary stenting done. That's right, so after a patient's had a stent it means that they have a really important mandatory reason to take medicines because the stents are made of metal and we need for that metal to stay open and for no clot to form. So all patients that have had stents will typically be given blood thinning medication. The most common blood thinner we will use is aspirin, and that's typically used at 75 milligram dose, so we refer to that as baby aspirin. We need for patients to take that once a day, and that's usually for long-term, but there are some special circumstances where we make changes to that. The other most common anti-platelet drug that we give, drugs that thin the blood by blocking platelet function, is a drug called clopidogrel, sometimes referred to as clopidogrel, because it helps patients remember the name. Now that medicine is typically a bright pink tablet, that's also 75 milligrams, that's taken once a day, and will be used in conjunction with aspirin. These two medicines are typically continued for a certain duration of time, and for most patients needing stents, that may be that they take both medicines for one year. Now there are special circumstances that require patients to make changes to that, and that may be if you're on other blood thinning medications for irregular heartbeats, or in patients who've had a heart attack, we may use a stronger medicine called ticagrelor, which is used in lieu of the clopidogrel. So these are the common medicines that you may need to take after having a stent. Thank you.