What is Interventional Cardiology?

Interventional cardiology is a subspecialty of cardiology that focuses on diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, angina, and other conditions. A Covington interventional cardiologist or cardiac surgeon, helps patients who have life-threatening heart conditions.

What do interventional cardiologists do?

Interventional cardiologists perform minimally invasive procedures to treat patients with life-threatening diseases with limited options for conventional therapy. These include coronary artery bypass grafting and stenting-inserting a small balloon into an artery to open it up. Others have ablation procedures that use radiofrequency energy to destroy blocked arteries (angioplasty), percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) procedures involving the insertion of catheters into narrowed arteries and then inflating balloons to unblock them, and other procedures such as radiofrequency ablation for arrhythmias caused by atherosclerosis and valve repair/replacement.

Why you should opt for interventional cardiology

Reduce complications: Interventional cardiology is a highly effective treatment for patients with coronary artery disease. The procedure involves inserting catheters into the heart to open blocked arteries or place stents in arteries narrowed by plaque buildup.

Improve the quality of life: There are risks associated with any surgery, but those related to interventional cardiology procedures are generally low and easily managed. Patients may experience short-term discomfort, which usually improves after several weeks as the body heals itself.

Improve survival rates: Intensive care unit patients with heart failure often require various medications to treat their symptoms. Many of these medications can cause side effects such as diarrhea and nausea. Interventional cardiology can help reduce these side effects by reducing congestion in the heart muscle by removing plaque buildup from arteries. Plaque buildup is a major cause of mortality in heart failure patients.

Reduce hospitalizations: In addition to improving survival rates, interventional cardiology can also help reduce hospitalizations for heart failure patients by enhancing the strength of their hearts. They achieve this through angioplasty or by placing stents to open blocked arteries that supply blood flow to their hearts. By reducing congestion in the heart muscle, interventional cardiologists may increase patient comfort through fewer hospitalizations due to congestive heart failure or other complications associated with this condition.

Restore function: In many cases, an interventional procedure can restore function to patients who have suffered from heart failure for years or decades. A patient with severe mitral valve regurgitation may return to work or resume normal activities after treatment. The procedure may also allow a patient with longstanding peripheral vascular disease to resume normal activities, such as walking short distances and exercising.

Reduce cost: Interventional cardiology is an effective way to treat patients with heart disease by decreasing the risk of future heart attacks and strokes. When compared to the traditional medical approach, it can reduce costs by lowering hospitalization rates, preventing complications from procedures, and avoiding repeat surgeries for patients who might have died during their first surgery if they had not been treated with interventional techniques.

With cutting-edge technology and specialists from Louisiana Heart and Vascular who perform a wide array of procedures, interventional cardiology is coming into its own as a separate branch of cardiology. It also has a sure place in the medical community as it benefits patients’ lives. Contact the experts today for more information about heart health.