You went for your annual stress test and your physician wasn't entirely happy with the results. "There is an area at the bottom of your heart that concerns me", he said, "and you told me that lately, you are getting winded on the golf course".
This is when your doctor will recommend a cardiac catheterization, a test in which the heart and coronary arteries are directly visualized. The following is what your cardiac catheterization experience at St. John's will be like. Cardiac catheterization is NOT a painful procedure.
A member of the cath lab staff will call you the day before your procedure to confirm your scheduled time and answer any questions you may have. On the morning of your procedure you will report to the Cath Lab on S1 where you will be greeted and escorted to our Prep and Recovery Room. After changing into one of the "stylish" hospital gowns, one of our specially trained RNs will go over what to expect during the procedure and start an IV in your arm. You will walk into the lab itself, which is filled with state-of-the-art x-ray equipment, and made comfortable on a TempurPedic© mattress. Monitoring equipment will be attached to you, and the area of catheter insertion (either groin or wrist) will be washed with an antiseptic solution. At this time you will receive mild sedation through your IV. Your physician will then administer local anesthesia, insert the catheter and take x-ray pictures and measure intracardiac pressures. The procedure takes less than half an hour, and when it is finished you will return to where you started out to have the catheter removed. Your physician will discuss the findings with you and your family, and you will be observed for several hours. You will have a personal TV and will be given lunch. Two to four hours following your procedure you will be discharged home with personalized post-cath instructions.
Cath Lab Staff:
Barbara Ventura, NP - Manager (914.964.4714)
Glenn Holowczak, RN
Susanne E. White, RN
Henry A. Bartee, Hemodynamic Specialist
Cheryl McCarron, Scheduler
