Interventional Cardiology

Our Approach

Interventional cardiology at Franciscan Health is staffed by physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted heart treatments. Our cardiologists use X-Rays and MRIs to guide them when advancing catheters, wires, and other small instruments through the body, usually in an artery, to the source of the disease non-surgically. With few or no incisions, interventional cardiology allows for less pain and a quicker recovery time for patients.

Common interventional cardiology services

Coronary Angiography

For more than 20 years, interventional cardiologists have used an artery in the groin or wrist to eliminate clots in the arteries surrounding the heart. Physicians at Franciscan Health pioneered the wrist technique, which means patients are able to be mobile sooner than they would using the groin approach.

Stents

If your doctor suspects a blockage in one of the arteries in the heart, they will order an angiogram, which allows them to see the internal structures of the arteries using X-ray and a special dye that is injected through a thin, flexible tube inserted into an artery in your groin. If the interventional cardiologist performing the test is able to find the blockage, he or she can immediately perform a procedure known as angioplasty to remove the clot or plaques.

Research has shown that most patients benefit from the placing of a tiny, mesh coil in the artery where the blockage was located to prevent a second blockage from forming at the site. The tiny mesh coil, which is also known as a stent, is available with, and without, a coating of medication.

Benefits of interventional cardiology

Franciscan Health's specialists give patients an in-depth knowledge of minimally invasive treatments along with cardiology diagnostic and clinical experience.

• Most procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis or require only a short hospital stay.
• General anesthesia usually is not required.
• Risk, pain, and recovery time are often significantly reduced.
• The procedures are sometimes less expensive than surgery or other alternatives.