OLV Hospital
Aalst, Belgium
Cardiac Catheterization
laboratory
Zuzana Podlasová DZZ2
Main Entrance
of OLV Hospital
Main Lobby of OLV Hospital
OLV Hospital
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OLV Hospital (short for Onze-LieveVrouwziekenhuis) 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.
Some statistics
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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
Department of my week placement
Catheterization laboratory
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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
„Operating theatre“
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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
Before examination
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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
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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
After examination
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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
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
Procedures performed
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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
Drugs used during examination
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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.
Thanks for your attention 