PreOp Patient Education
Thursday, March 28, 2024

  Your Body
  Alternatives
  Medical Record
  Anesthesia
  Before Surgery
  Your Procedure
  Recovery

Cardiac Catheterization

Angiography


Your Procedure

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Now it's time to talk about the actual procedure your doctor has recommended for you.

On the day of your operation,
you will be asked to put on a surgical gown.
You may receive a sedative by mouth
and an intravenous line may be put in.
You will then be transferred to the operating table.
To begin, your leg and groin are swabbed with an antiseptic solution.
Then the doctor will make a small cut over the femoral artery in the upper part of the leg.
A special needle is then inserted into the artery itself.
Then a guide wire is carefully passed through the needle and gently pushed into the artery and upwards towards your chest.
Once the wire's in place at the aorta, a narrow tube, called a catheter, is threaded along the wire until it too has reached the aorta.
The guide wire will then be withdrawn, leaving the catheter in place.
Next, the doctor injects a dye - specially designed to show up under x-rays. The dye will outline the blood vessels that feed that heart and will allow your doctor to pinpoint areas where blood flow has been reduced.
After a thorough investigation, the catheter is withdrawn...
and slight pressure is applied to the incision in your leg in order to prevent bleeding. The dye that was injected will break up and leave your body as waste.

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