Catheter
Doctors use catheterization for the purpose of detecting or treating coronary heart disease, which often causes heart disease and heart attacks, if not treated, because of its important role in providing the heart muscle to work properly. The catheter identifies and treats the blockages that occur in the blood vessels as a result of atherosclerosis.
Cardiovascular sclerosis is often caused by the deposition and accumulation of blood plaques inside the artery, which obstructs the movement of blood towards it or prevents it from passing to and from the heart as in heart attacks. The catheterization is also performed in the case of a congenital heart defect to repair or reduce Damage caused by it.
Prepare for catheterization
Prior to undergoing the catheterization, the patient undergoes a number of tests including tests of stress, blood clotting, comprehensive blood test, and heart function planning. The patient’s need for catheterization depends on the results of the previous tests. Suffers from one of them days before the catheterization and also refrain from eating or drinking and even smoking eight hours before the date of the operation and anesthesia.
Steps of the catheterization process
- After the doctor determines the place of entry of the tube and in most cases is through the femoral artery or radial, where the area to enter the tube and to make a small hole in them, to allow the passage of the tube into the blood stream without causing any damage, The tube is cross-vessel through a precise camera mounted at the top of the tube.
- The tube pumps a colored material inside the blood vessels that allows the detection of areas that suffer from sediment and aggregates, which act to fill the course of the walls of the colored material, making it easy to observe and locate.
* These arteries are often treated and rid of the accumulated plaque on the walls during the catheterization process, by blowing a balloon inside the artery, which allows fragmentation of the blockage causing the blockage, or by placing a pillar of the artery that prevents constriction and blockage. In advanced and difficult cases, Surgery is often an open heart surgery or cardiac pulmonary surgery.
- The tube is pulled from the patient’s body through the updated hole, and the hole is then secured.