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Cardiac Catheterization Lab

Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville's Cardiac Catheterization Lab offers a wide range of services, including the diagnosis and treatment of blood clots, implantation of permanent pacemakers, PTCAs, stents, ROTOBLATOR© treatments and other services.

Physicians at Baptist Health Deaconess Madisonville are performing a new technique for cardiac catheterization, a procedure to detect and treat heart conditions. Known as radial catheterization, this new treatment is reducing recovery time and lowering the rate of complications in many patients.

Currently, only 10 percent of hospitals in the country offer radial catheterizations. Whereas traditional heart caths have been performed by threading a thin tube through the femoral artery in the groin, this procedure goes through the radial artery located in the wrist.

The benefits of radial catheterization:

  • Patients can get up immediately after the procedure, rather than having to lie still for 4- 6 hours. 
  • Following the procedure, patients are observed for a few hours and then released to go home.
  • Less stress and improved patient comfort

The cath lab also offers many other services as well, including procedures to find and remove dangerous blood clots or fatty buildup in the body's blood vessels. If not removed, the blockages can cause strokes, heart attacks or other dangerous conditions.

Other available treatment methods:

  • Stents (small, expandable wire tubes) can be used to expand vessels constricted by fatty deposits.
  • A ROTOBLATOR® is an instrument that gently scrapes the fatty deposits from the sides of the vessels. Sometimes special enzymes are used to dissolve clots and reopen vessels.
  • The cath lab also provides services to analyze the electrical function of the heart, intra-aortic balloons to aid the heart in pumping blood, and 24-hour surgical backup for all procedures.
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