Interventional cardiac catheterization has become one of the most important tools in treating people with coronary artery disease (CAD), and Prairie Heart Institute - Memorial Hospital of Carbondale has provided this life-saving procedure since 2002.
A heart attack occurs when some part of a person's heart is not receiving blood. In twenty minutes the heart muscle will begin to die, causing permanent damage. Immediate treatment is required to minimize the damage or prevent possible death.
A heart attack is caused by a blockage in one of the three major arteries or other smaller arteries that supply blood to the heart. The obstruction is usually the result of a blood clot or the buildup of fatty or calcified material in the artery. This is called atherosclerosis. When either condition occurs, an interventional cardiac catheterization is necessary to open the artery and restore blood flow.
Before the procedure was developed in the early 1980s, it was not possible to locate the blockage and remove it without open-heart surgery. “It truly revolutionized medicine,” Son Le, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Prairie Cardiovascular Consultants, said. “We can now find where the problem is and fix it. Now, we can get to it immediately. It means a problem may be fixed here before a heart attack.”
For the procedure, an interventional cardiologist inserts a catheter into an artery, usually in the groin, and guides it to the heart and the location of the blockage. There the cardiologist will either open the artery with an angioplasty, the inflating of a small balloon to dilate the artery, or apply a stent, a tiny, scaffold-like device used to prop open the artery. During the procedure the patient remains awake and, generally, feels no pain. Patients often go home the next day after an intervention.
"If you have a heart attack you have immediate access to a cath-lab where we can open up the blockage," he said. In addition, a catheterization may make it possible to avoid open-heart surgery, reducing risks associated with wound care. "They are more prone to infection. With a balloon the patient may go home the next day. It is easier on the patient," he said.
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