What To Expect From A Coronary Angiography

Your heart needs a constant supply of oxygenated blood in order to function properly. That is the job of your coronary arteries. They are located on the surface of the heart muscle and begin at the aorta. As blood moves from your left atrium into your left ventricle, the coronary arteries help oxygenate it. Over time, those arteries can become clogged by plaque or clots. That hampers the flow of blood and reduces the amount available to your heart. If this happens, you may suffer a heart attack or angina.

Coronary angiography (CA) is a procedure that doctors use to study the health and function of your coronary arteries. It is virtually painless. In this article, we’ll explain how it is performed and what happens during the process. We’ll also describe what you can expect after the procedure has been performed.

How The Process Works

Your coronary arteries do not show up on X-rays. Your doctor needs to send a dye to the site in order to create an angiogram. This is done through a catheter. Your doctor will make a small hole into a blood vessel from your groin or arm. A sheath is inserted into the hole. A thin guide wire is inserted into the sheath and threaded through the blood vessel toward your coronary arteries.

Once the guide wire has reached the site, your physician will place a catheter over it. The catheter is guided toward your coronary arteries over the wire. Once the catheter reaches the site, the guide wire is removed.

The next step is for your doctor to inject the dye through the catheter in order to flood your coronary arteries. This dye allows X-ray images to be taken of the site with which your physician can identify plaque or clots that are hampering the flow of blood. These X-ray images are called angiograms.

If an obstruction is identified, your physician may perform angioplasty to broaden the artery. This is accomplished by using a small balloon at the end of the catheter. The balloon is expanded, which widens the area so that blood can flow past the obstruction. A stent is placed within the artery to keep the passageway widened after the catheter has been removed. Once the catheter has been withdrawn, a bandage is placed over the puncture site to prevent bleeding.

After The Procedure

While coronary angiography is painless, you may feel soreness at the site in which the catheter was inserted. You’ll be placed into the care of nurses who will watch for bleeding or other complications over several hours. Once they are confident that your blood pressure has returned to normal and your heart rate is within an appropriate range, you’ll be released from the hospital.

When you speak with your doctor about coronary angiography, you’ll have the opportunity to sign consent forms for balloon angioplasty. Use that time to ask your doctor to clarify any questions you have about the procedure.

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What You Can Expect After Undergoing The Atrial Maze Procedure

Maze surgery is performed in order to resolve a condition known as atrial fibrillation (or, Afib). The disorder is characterized by an irregular sinus rhythm that causes your right and left atria (upper chambers of your heart) to fibrillate. Instead of traveling from the sinus node to the atrioventricular node, the electrical impulses produced by the sinus node take a side route. In doing so, they cause your heart to beat in an irregular pattern.

The atrial Maze procedure is done to eliminate all but a single route along which the electrical impulses can travel. A surgeon will make a series of incisions into your atria and sew them back together. The resulting scar tissue does not conduct electricity and therefore, forces the impulses to move along a defined path. The path appears similar to a maze.

This type of surgery can be accomplished by opening the patient’s chest and cutting through his sternum to access the heart. It can also be performed through minimally invasive techniques. In this article, we’ll describe the postoperative recovery you can expect in both cases.

Postoperative Recovery In The Hospital

Following an open chest operation, you’ll likely be placed into ICU for a few days. That way, the hospital staff can monitor the electrical activity of your heart and quickly identify any problems that develop. The nurses and doctors will also encourage you to begin moving as soon as possible; they’ll ask you to start walking within one or two days after the operation. The reason is to reduce the likelihood of blood clots forming.

In some cases, the surgical team may also connect an external pacemaker to your heart through the incisions in your chest. The pacemaker can trigger a heartbeat in the event your sinus node is unable to do so on its own.

Within ten days, you’ll be released from the hospital.

If your surgeon has performed minimally invasive atrial Maze surgery, you’ll still be placed into ICU, but only for a day. In fact, depending on your heart’s progress, you may only need to stay in ICU for a few hours. You’ll likely be released within three or four days.

Recovery At Home

Postoperative recovery after your chest has been opened will take approximately eight weeks to complete. During that time, you may need to take a blood thinner in order to prevent clotting. You can also expect to feel some degree of pain throughout your chest, though it will slowly subside. Within three months, you’ll be able to resume your normal level of physical activity.

Following minimally invasive Afib surgery, you’ll be able to return to your workplace in as little as one week. While the time required to make a complete recovery depends largely on the patient, it will be far shorter than would be experienced after undergoing open chest surgery.

As the technology becomes more advanced, and surgeons perfect their skill in performing the minimally invasive atrial Maze procedure, postoperative recovery will become virtually trouble-free.

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