Arrival

If you are scheduled for an outpatient catheterization, you will park in the James Street parking garage. Upon arrival in the hospital, you will report to Express Testing (1st floor) at the time specified by our scheduling department. Blood will be drawn to assess several lab values before your cath.

When finished in Express Testing, you will be directed to the Heart Center Registration Area, located on the second floor. Your personal health and insurance information will be reviewed for accuracy.

You will then be escorted to our Cath Lab Holding Area where you will be weighed and placed in a private room. Here you will change into a gown, be assessed by your nurse and have an IV started. Your nurse will ask you an extensive list of questions and review your current medication regimen. If you are already admitted to a hospital bed prior to your heart catheterization, you will skip the pre-registration process and be brought directly to our holding area.

Our Holding area is a starting point for many different cardiology patients managed by several different cardiology groups.

The Procedure

When it is time for your procedure, one of our staff members will transport you from the Holding Area into the Cath Lab suite. Once you are in the Cath Lab suite, our staff will transfer you to our table using a sliding board. You will notice that the temperature of the room is very cool. However warm blankets will be provided for your comfort. You will be hooked up to our monitors and a staff member will begin preparing your groin for the procedure. A loin cloth will be placed to maintain modesty while a staff member shaves your right and left groin area with an electric razor. Generally, we only use the right side, however, we prepare both sides in case we need to enter through the left side. Once your groin is prepared, staff members will place several blue sterile drapes on top of you. We ask you to please not reach on top of the drapes. When we are finished preparing the sterile field and equipment, your cardiologist will be notified.

When the cardiologist begins, he or she will put firm pressure on your groin while feeling for your pulse. Following this, your groin will be injected with a local anesthetic that will sting for a small period of time. After the initial anesthetic you should not feel sharp pain. If you do feel pain, please let us know. We have plenty of medications that can help comfort you. When your groin has been numbed, we will gain access to your femoral artery and insert a sheath approximately the size of a coffee stirrer. This sheath acts as a one way valve allowing us to exchange our catheters in and out of your artery without blood loss occurring. After the sheath is inserted, the hard part is over. You will not feel our catheters traveling to your heart because there are no nerve endings inside your arteries.

Generally, the first picture that we take visualizes the main pumping chamber of your heart. With this picture, you may feel a hot flash from head to toe. It may also make you a little nauseated, create a metallic taste in your mouth, and/or make you feel like you urinated. You will not have urinated. It is just a feeling you get from the x-ray dye. These are normal sensations and will go away in approximately one minute.

We will also take pictures of your coronary arteries. During these pictures, your cardiologist may ask you to take a deep breath and hold it for approximately 10 seconds. Throughout the procedure, the cameras will be rotating around you as we obtain images from several different angles. You may watch the pictures on our television screen; but, at times your view may be blocked by our rotating cameras. We can explain your pictures to you when the procedure is over.

Post Procedure

The length of your procedure may vary. If the pictures show us that there is not a blockage, we will put you back on your bed and return you to the Holding Area. Once in the Holding Area, we will monitor your vital signs and remove the sheath(s) when appropriate. After the sheath is removed, you will have bed rest based on your cardiologist’s order, and then be discharged. Although the procedure is relatively short in duration, please plan on spending the entire day with us.

If the pictures confirm that you do have a blockage, your cardiologist may attempt to open it, if clinically appropriate. From your perspective opening a blockage is similar to the diagnostic portion of the test. We will place an additional sheath in your groin and place you on oxygen. You may notice some chest pain when we inflate our balloon(s) and/or stent(s). This chest pain may last for approximately one minute; although, you may have a dull ache in your chest for several hours after the procedure. This is called stretch pain and occurs when we stretch the wall of your artery. This pain will slowly resolve after your procedure.

Fixing a coronary artery is unique for each person and procedure times will vary. During the procedure, we will give you blood thinners. The sheaths in your leg may have to remain in place until the blood thinners wear off. This may take a few hours. Several hours of bed rest may follow the removal of your sheath(s). With any interventional procedure, you will need to spend at least one night in the hospital. Most patients are discharged the following day.