Who performed the first successful coronary balloon angioplasty in 1977?

Andreas Gruentzig performed the first successful coronary balloon angioplasty in 1977.

Gruentzig carried out the procedure in Zurich, Switzerland, on a patient with coronary artery disease. His catheter used an inflatable balloon to widen a narrowed coronary artery without open-heart bypass surgery.

The technique became known as percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, or PTCA. It created the foundation for modern percutaneous coronary intervention, in which balloons and stents are delivered through blood vessels.

Gruentzig’s first procedure treated a discrete narrowing in the left anterior descending coronary artery. Balloon angioplasty was later supplemented and often replaced by coronary stents, which help keep treated arteries open and reduce abrupt recoil.