Minimally Invasive Procedures

What Is Heart Catheterization?

Doctors at St. Elizabeth Heart & Vascular Institute use imaging exams and catheter-based procedures to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease. In many instances, our specialists can assess and treat your condition during a single procedure.

To perform heart catheterization, your doctor makes a tiny incision in your upper thigh (groin) or wrist and inserts a catheter – a thin, flexible tube – into a large blood vessel that leads to your heart.

These procedures are performed in our Cardiac Catheterization Labs by cardiologists and interventional cardiologists, who specialize in catheter-based procedures.

Diagnosing Heart Disease

We use a variety of exams to diagnose heart disease, such as:

• Angiogram – Views the inside of arteries in your heart, kidney and lungs, as well as peripheral arteries (not in the chest or abdomen, including arms and legs).
• Nitrous oxide challenge – Measures pressure in your heart and pulmonary artery (to diagnose chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
• Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) – Examines the inside of your arteries using sound waves.
• Swan-Ganz catheterization – Monitors heart function and blood flow.

Diagnostic exams are outpatient procedures that don’t usually require an overnight stay. However, if you undergo an interventional procedure (treatment) in addition to a diagnostic exam, you may require a brief hospital stay.

Heart Disease Treatments

Whenever possible, your doctor will perform these interventional procedures – rather than surgery – to treat disease. Doctors use these techniques to reopen blocked arteries, restore normal heart rhythm or improve blood flow – including lifesaving heart attack care:

• Angioplasty and stent placement – Opens narrowed or blocked arteries by inflating a tiny balloon (also called balloon angioplasty). In many instances, doctors place a stent – a small, metal tube – in the artery to keep it open. This procedure is used in coronary, peripheral and carotid arteries, as well as in the kidneys.
• Atherectomy – Removes plaque buildup in blood vessels using a catheter with a sharp blade (metal burr).
• Atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale repairs – Closes openings in the heart that are there at birth (congenital abnormalities).
• Coronary thrombectomy – Removes a blood clot from a blood vessel that supplies blood to the heart.
• Pericardiocentesis – Removes fluid from around the heart.
• Septal ablations – Destroys diseased heart tissue that causes hypertrophic cardiomyopathy by creating a small, controlled heart attack.
• Temporary pacemaker implantation – Treats short-term heart problems, such as a slow heartbeat caused by a heart attack, heart surgery or a medicine overdose.
• Temporary ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation – Stabilizes someone who’s critically ill until diagnosis and treatment decisions can be determined.
• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) – Replaces the aortic valve in the heart. This offers a minimally invasive alternative to some people who can’t have open-heart surgery,

• Valvuloplasty – Improves blood flow in the heart by opening the aortic, mitral or pulmonary valve in the heart with a tiny balloon (similar to angioplasty).

Our heart and vascular team will discuss the treatments that are right for you.