OLV Hospital Aalst, Belgium Cardiac Catheterization laboratory

1. OLV Hospital Aalst, BelgiumCardiac Catheterization laboratory Zuzana Podlasová DZZ2

2. Main Entrance of OLV Hospital Main Lobby of OLV Hospital

3. OLV Hospital • OLV Hospital (short for Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis) is one of the best-known medical facilities in all of Belgium • OLV Hospital and its staff have earned an outstanding reputation in Belgium and across the world, particularly in the fields of cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, neurological surgery, and urology. • OLV Hospital is located only 40km from Brussels’ National Airport.

4. Some statistics • OLV Hospital has over 840 beds and 95 day-care beds • OLV performs over 40,200 operations per year • OLV employs over 2,500 medical experts as staff • OLV has over 270 qualified physicians • OLV is the 6th largest hospital in Belgium, excluding university facilities

5. Department of my week placement Catheterization laboratory

6. Cath – lab has 5 isolated „operating theatres“, but doctors don´t do operations but only examinations • Apart from these OT there are other rooms such as kitchen, staff room, meeting room, toilets or storage • Other isolated room is where patients are transfered after examination. In this room works one nurse who takes care about patients or gives information what to do or not to do after examination

7. „Operating theatre“ • Every room where these examinations are performed has „bed for examination“ which you can put down or up, 6 monitors, X-Ray machine that goes around patient, table with drugs and other aids, machine that flows contrast liquid to the blood vessels under pressure, lights, some acustical apparatus to communicate with nurses behind the glass, button to open the door, bins and other important equipment

9. Before examination • First step is to prepare a patient – doctor gives information, talks about some risks and calms down the patient • Nurses prepare sterile table (always disposable) and other aids • Patient is given pads on limbs, not on the chest and nurse has to disinfect place on his arm or leg • So the patient is ready and here comes the doctor

10. next step is to give local anaesthesia (it is given by a doctor) and heparine as prevention against blood clot (it is given by a nurse) • Entry of the catheter could be via arteria femoralis or arteria radialis, exceptionally arteria brachialis, it depends on the doctor who does this examination • Simply – doctor examines veins and arteries thanks to flowing contrast liquid into the blood vessels • Next to the patient there are 6 monitors which show X-ray pictures and EKG curves

11. After examination • Patients lie in isolated room where there is one nurse and she takes care about them • Patients have to lie in bed from 4 to 8 hours, it depends on thickness of catheter used during examination • after this procedure patients can´t ride a bicycle or they can´t sit in hot water, just take a shower, this is very important to know

12. Complications There are some risks during the examination: • Creation of haematoma • Allergic reaction • Defibrillation • Bleeding • Problems with obese people – doctor can´t find vein or artery

13. Procedures performed • Electrophysiological Study and Radiofrequency Ablation • Pacemaker Implantation • Biventricular ICD Implantation • Heart Cathetrisation and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (with drugs) • Eluting Stent Implantation • Percutaneous Closure of Atrial Septal Defect

15. Drugs used during examination • Cedocard – A nitrate vasodilator drug administered orally and sublingually for the treatment and prevention of angina pectoris • Protamine – used as an antidote to heparin overdosage • Linisol – local anaesthetic • Cordarone - antiarrhytmic • Ephedrine – is a sympathomimetic used as a stimulant, concentration aid and to treat hypotension associated with anaesthesia • Adenosine – it is for treating surgical pain, pulmonary hypertension, and certain types of irregular heartbeat. It is also given for controlling blood pressure during anaesthesia and surgery.

16. Thanks for your attention 