It is a diagnostic and interventional method performed by our interventional cardiologists at Shefaa to evaluate and/or treat specific cardiovascular diseases. In this minimally invasive procedure, a long, narrow, flexible tube, cardiac catheter, is inserted, under local anesthesia, in the groin or the arm to reach the heart. In order to enable x-rays to create visible images, a special dye is injected in the coronary arteries (supply blood to the heart muscle). The produced x-ray images are used to locate an area of coronary obstruction or stenosis .
Once an obstructed or narrowed area is detected, a wire is inserted through the catheter with an inflatable balloon that is centered over the blockage, where it is used to widen the obstructed artery in a process known as “balloon angioplasty” or “Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA)”.
Along PTCA, a small mesh-like coil of wire might be placed to keep the narrowed vessel open permanently in order to decrease the probability of having a heart attack in a process known as “percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)” or “stenting”. This stent can be made of bare metal (BMS) or it can be coated with a drug to prevent reclosing of the blood vessel (DES).
Complicated coronary disease might result in “Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO)”, where a more advanced technique is offered by Shefaa, known as CTO PCI, is used to treat this prolonged blockage of coronary arteries.
In case of an abnormal heart pace, a pacemaker might be necessary to control heartbeat. A cardiac catheter can be used to implant this small electronic device, which will regulate cardiac rhythm. The pacemaker implementation is a minimally invasive procedure performed under local anesthesia of the site of incision .