Is coronary stent a major surgery?

No, coronary stent placement is not considered major surgery. It is a minimally invasive catheter-based procedure. 

Some key points:

- It does not require any surgical incisions or cutting. The stent is inserted through a catheter threaded through the blood vessels to the blocked artery.

- It is typically done under mild sedation and local anesthesia. General anesthesia is usually not required. 

- Recovery time is much faster compared to open heart surgery. Hospital stay is usually 1-2 days versus 4-7 days after major heart surgery.

- Patients can often return to normal activity within a week versus 6-12 weeks for surgery recovery.

- Risk of complications like infection, bleeding, and adverse reactions is lower than open heart surgery.

- However, it does carry risks inherent to heart procedures like blood clots, heart attack, stroke, arrhythmias, and damage to blood vessels.

- It is considered a catheterization procedure or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), not a surgical operation. 

So in summary, while still a somewhat invasive procedure, stent placement is not nearly as complex or involved as open heart bypass surgery or valve repair/replacement. It does not require stopping the heart or putting patients on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. Therefore, it is not classified as major heart surgery.