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Question:
Does anyone anywhere perform transradial cardiac ablations for atrial flutter?
From discussions with my electrophysiologist and numerous online searches, it appears cardiac interventionists perform transradial cardiac catheterizations, and electrophysiologists perform transfemoral cardiac ablations, but no one performs transradial cardiac ablations.
submitted by Tom from Columbus, Ohio on 2/13/2015
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, Mohammad Saeed, MD
Your question requires some explanations before I provide the answer.
One set of blood vessels carry red oxygenated blood from the left side of heart to different organs. These blood vessels are called arteries and typically have pulsatile blood flow at high pressure. Other set of blood vessels carry blue, de-oxygenated blood back to the right side of heart. They are called veins and typically have nonpulsatile blood flow at low pressure.
In order to reach the left side of heart doctors use arteries. Because of this reason, interventional cardiologists can either use the femoral artery or the radial artery, depending upon the size of the catheter needed for the procedure.
In order to reach the right side of heart, doctors use the femoral vein, subclavian vein or internal jugular vein, depending upon the size of the catheter needed for the procedure.
Most of the electrophysiology procedures require access to right side of heart using large size catheters, therefore, electrophysiologists typically use transfemoral access.
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Updated February 2015
