The adviser, Douglas Band, said Clinton was in “good spirits” after undergoing the procedure at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Clinton, 63, had quadruple bypass surgery in 2004 to open four blocked arteries.
The former president has been working in recent weeks to help relief efforts in Haiti. Since leaving office, he has maintained a busy schedule working on humanitarian projects through his foundation.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left Washington and was heading to New York to be with her husband.
Aides to Mrs. Clinton said she left the capital shortly after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House ahead of a planned trip to the Persian Gulf that was to begin Friday.
Aides to Mrs. Clinton said she still plans to go ahead with the trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, although the trip could be delayed slightly.
Stents are tiny mesh scaffolds used to prop open an artery after it is unclogged in an angioplasty procedure.
Doctors thread a tube through a blood vessel in the groin to a blocked artery, inflate a balloon to flatten the clog, and slide the stent into place.
That is a different treatment from what Clinton had in 2004, when clogged arteries first landed him in the hospital. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery because of four blocked arteries, some of which had squeezed almost completely shut.
Angioplasty, which usually includes placing stents, is one of the most common medical procedures done worldwide. More than half a million stents are placed each year in the United States.
With bypass or angioplasty, patients often need another procedure years down the road because arteries often reclog.
Its not unexpected for Clinton to need another procedure now, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, cardiologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and president of the American Heart Association.
The sections of arteries and veins used to create detours around the original blockages tend to develop clogs five to 10 years after a bypass, he explained. New blockages also can develop in new areas.
This kind of disease is progressive. Its not a one-time event, so it really points out the need for constant surveillance and treating risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, he said.
Doctors will have to watch Clinton closely for signs of excessive bleeding from the spot in the leg where doctors inserted a catheter, said Dr. Spencer King, a cardiologist at St. Josephs Heart and Vascular Institute in Atlanta and past president of the American College of Cardiology.
Complications are rare. The death rate from non-emergency angioplasty is well under 1 percent, King said.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services