Coronary angiography is a procedure that patients anticipate with considerable anxiety, and one of the most useful things I can do for a patient who is about to undergo it at Hridhay Heart Center, Gajuwaka, is give them an honest account of what they will experience. The procedure is performed with the patient awake but sedated enough to be relaxed. The access site is the wrist: the skin over the radial artery is numbed with a small injection of local anaesthetic, which produces a brief stinging sensation that is similar to having a blood test. After the skin is numb, the introducer sheath is placed into the artery painlessly. The catheter is then advanced from the wrist through the arterial system to the heart under real-time X-ray guidance. The patient feels none of this: there are no pain receptors inside the blood vessels or the heart, and the catheter's passage from the wrist to the coronary arteries is entirely without sensation. The only sensation during the procedure itself is a brief flush of warmth that occurs when the contrast material is injected into the coronary arteries, which some patients notice and others do not. The procedure from start to finish takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes. After the procedure, the wrist sheath is removed and a small compression band is placed over the access site, which is worn for several hours. Most patients are able to sit up, eat, and drink within an hour of the procedure, and in elective cases many patients are discharged the same day or the morning after. The wrist access route has replaced the groin route as the standard approach because it is substantially more comfortable after the procedure, allows earlier mobilisation, and has a lower risk of access site complications. For the vast majority of patients, coronary angiography at Hridhay Heart Center is far less frightening in reality than the anticipation of it beforehand.
Related reading:
Coronary Artery Disease: A Complete Patient Guide from Diagnosis to Recovery
Breaking Down Complex Coronary Blockages: When and Why Advanced Interventions Matter
Diabetes and Heart Disease: Why Indians With Type 2 Diabetes Are at Higher Coronary Risk
The Critical Role of Preventive Cardiology: Building a Heart-Healthy Future
Written by Dr. K Narayana Raju, MBBS, MD, DNB Cardiology (Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bengaluru), Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Hridhay Heart Center, Gajuwaka, Visakhapatnam 530026. Phone: +91 85999 56999.
