-
Be sure you don't have anything to eat or drink
(NPO) after the designated time instructed at your PRAT visit.
-
Arrive
at the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the designated
time.
-
Upon arrival at the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, a
nurse will check your temperature, pulse, blood pressure
and oxygen
saturation.
-
An intravenous catheter (IV) will be inserted into a vein
if you are not going under general anesthesia.
-
If the catheterization
is going to be performed under general anesthesia, the anesthesiologist
will discuss sedation
and IV insertion (which is usually
done after you
are
sleeping).
-
You will be transferred to the cath lab
on a hospital bed. Your family may accompany you up to certain
point.
-
Your family can wait in the cath lab waiting room,
and they will be given periodic updates.
-
In the cath lab you
will be transferred to the cath lab table. Equipment in the
lab includes monitors and large
cameras. A Cardiologist and
multiple
team
members will
be present.
-
After you are positioned on the
table, various monitors will be connected (heart rhythm,
blood pressure
and oxygen).
-
You will receive sedation medication or anesthesia to help
you sleep.
-
After you are asleep, your legs will be washed with
special soap, and then you will be covered from your
neck to your toes with a sterile sheet.
-
The procedure will be performed. When
the procedure is finished you will be woken up.
-
If the procedure
is not performed under general anesthesia, medications will
be given in the IV to keep you
comfortable and sleepy. Discomfort usually only occurs when putting “numbing” medicine
into the groin before insertion of
the catheters (this only takes a few seconds).
-
During the procedure, you will
be told
when angiograms
are going
to be performed. After an angiogram,
you may feel a warm sensation lasting a few seconds.
-
Lying still on
the lab table for
an extended period of time
may be associated with some discomfort. You are encouraged
to notify
the staff if you are uncomfortable
anytime in the procedure. This
should not be an unpleasant
experience and we want you
to be comfortable and relaxed.
-
If a catheter intervention
is performed, it is completed after the angiograms are
reviewed.
-
After an intervention, repeat measurements and angiograms
are performed.
-
At the completion of the catheterization, the catheters
are removed and pressure is applied to the groin area for 10-20
minutes, to prevent
bleeding.
-
A pressure dressing is applied to area.
-
The anesthesiologist will wake you up and remove the breathing
tube.
-
You will be transferred to the recovery room by stretcher
for an hour and then return to cath lab holding area or transferred
to the designated hospital floor if staying overnight.
