Today, together with cancer, heart disease is one of the main causes of mortality in developed societies. Many of these cardiorespiratory conditions are directly related to an unbalanced diet or harmful habits such as tobacco or alcohol. Both directly influence how veins and arteries are preserved, the channels that blood requires to reach the whole body and ensure proper functioning.
To get ahead of heart disease such as anginas or myocardial infarctions, specialists can determine the need for the patient to undergo a minimally invasive scan or intervention that acts as a prevention of more serious pathologies. This test is catheterism. We explain what it is and for what cases it is recommended.
What It Catheterization And What It’s For?
Catheterization is a coronary intervention technique that consists of the introduction of a catheter (alarm) through a vein or artery to explore and treat a specific area of the vascular system (it can be both the interior of the heart and an area of the veins or arteries).
This heart procedure is used both for the diagnosis and treatment of heart diseases such as angina or heart attack, as well as as an exploration of the state of blood vessels, thus looking for fat accumulation plaques or lesions in the arteries and veins that may lead to heart disease in the short or medium term. In addition, it is an invasive procedure that allows the cardiologist to directly treat this type of cardiac risk, uncovering such obstructions.
In the elderly, cardiac catheterization can be used as a complement to other techniques of analysis and treatment of cardiac pathologies such as coronary angioplasty or implantation of a stent or metal prosthesis that helps keep blood vessels open to improve blood circulation and blood flow. It has also been used as a collaborative tool for percutaneous valvuloplasty or treatment for the evaluation and release of the functioning of the heart valves.
Today, the catheter used is flexible, which prevents or minimizes the risk of a tearing on the walls of the veins and arteries that causes internal bleeding.
How A Catheterization Is Done?
Before taking the test, your doctor will inform you of how you are going to proceed, the risks it poses, and the recovery it may require. Except in patients who arrive at the ER without the ability to make autonomous decisions, the patient’s written and consented approval is required before starting the preparations for the cardiological test.
Due to the nature of the test, this type of diagnosis or treatment does require the patient’s admission, either the day before or the morning of the appointment with the cardiologist. In any case, you will be asked to be fasting at least 8 hours before the scan. The success of catheterization needs to remain calm.
Before you start the test, you have to change your clothes and put on the hospital gown offered by the assistants. In the room where you will perform the catheterization, there is a stretcher in addition to several monitors. The auxiliaries will explain again how you have to lie down (mouth upstairs) and take your blood pressure to keep an eye on you being at a regular stage of your heart rate.
Electrodes are also placed in the chest to control the heart rate at all times. The pathway they open you is an emergency formula in case there is any kind of complication during the scan or treatment and the immediate supply of some kind of drug is necessary.
How The Catheterization is Executed?
There are three main ways to introduce the catheter: either by the radial artery of the arm the shoulder subclavian artery, or, the most common, the iliac artery of the groin. In any case, wherever the puncture is, the environment is ripped off and disinfected with antiseptics. It must be they who shave the area so that they can perform the treatment of aseptic that ensures that infections are not introduced or generated in the area.
Catheterization is always done with local anesthesia, and always before arterial puncture. When the executor checks that the artery has been correctly punctured (intense red blood usually comes out at the rhythm of the heart) the catheter is inserted through the needle. When the inspection or treatment point is reached, it is introduced by venous radiological contrast that helps the specialist to reveal coronary or heart dysfunctions.
At that time, and depending on the situation of the cardiologist, you may decide to postpone the intervention or act at the moment. Whatever this decision, the patient doesn’t know anything thanks to anesthesia. After catheterization, the catheter and the puncture needle are removed. For a few minutes, they pressure you in the area to favor the clotting of the wound that causes and sells. Before you go down to the room you have the patient under observation to control possible reactions or complications.
Yes, these exist, although they are not frequent, and can occur in the form of general discomfort and nausea or in the form of loss of momentary consciousness, the appearance of arrhythmias, or tears in the arteries. The contrast can lead to an allergic reaction. In the most serious cases, a heart attack or a brain can occur, including an embolism or clots in specific areas.
The duration of catheterization varies according to the ease with which the specialist moves the catheter into the veins and arteries. In any case, with exceptions, it does not go beyond 30 minutes. If there are no complications during and after the intervention, the patient is discharged on the same day after anesthesia is expelled.
Later, either at the hospital or at home, the recovery will be guided by the cardiologist. Unlike heart attacks, it is faster although you have to be careful not to force muscle with weight or activity efforts.
When To Do A Catheterization?
As we have explained, cardiac catheterism helps the cardiologist study how the heart and coronary arteries and veins are. The specialist may dictate the advisability of practicing catheterization to the patient in the face of these symptoms:
If the patient has chest pain due to a lack of mild or severe blood flow, caused by a possible obstruction of the coronary arteries, which may lead to angina. Depending on the severity, the patient can be controlled or on the verge of a heart attack. Catheterization functions as an inspector and as an emergency route to open up that obstruction.
If a heart attack is occurring in the myocardium of gravity.
If arrhythmias are occurring and the heart is being explored internally in the face of electrocardiogram irregularities.
Where there is a need to monitor or repair the valves of the heart, including their replacement.
If you discover a malformation in the heart or arteries.