Our monitoring ward

The monitoring ward has six beds with monitor surveillance. The team that looks after you on the monitoring ward consists of a senior physician, three junior doctors and seven nursing staff. The monitoring ward is located on the ground floor of the heart centre in the immediate vicinity of the cardiac catheterisation suites. It is available around the clock as an emergency unit.

Cardiac catheterisations

Patients are referred for an urgent cardiac catheter examination, an electrophysiological examinationThis makes it possible to measure the electrical processes in the heart after special heart catheters have been inserted via the vessels in the groin or the crook of the arm. Enables more accurate diagnosis of certain cardiac rhythm disorders., etc. by doctors in private practice and external hospitals via the monitoring ward. Patients admitted to the monitoring ward for a cardiac catheterisationA diagnostic procedure in which a catheter (thin plastic tube) is inserted into the veins (right heart catheter) or arteries (left heart catheter). These are advanced to the inside of the heart. They are used, for example, to measure blood pressure and oxygen content in the various heart chambers or to image the coronary vessels and heart chambers using a contrast medium. usually arrive around 8 am. One of our nurses assigns the bed, then an ECG is carried out and blood is taken. Then a detailed history (questions about symptoms and the past medical history) and a physical examination take place. The planned interventionA quick medical measure to slow down the progression of a disease, e.g. with the help of the cardiac catheter (interventional cardiac catheter technique) an acutely occluded coronary vessel is reopened and thus the spread of the heart attack area is stopped. is explained in detail. The cardiac catheter examination takes place in the late morning, sometimes in the course of the afternoon. The examination itself only takes about 15 minutes. After the examination, the catheter is pulled out, the puncturePenetration with a hollow needle. Used to take blood samples, inject substances or to puncture a cavity filled with a liquid and thereby empty it. The insertion of a (heart) catheter is also referred to as a puncture. site is pressed on for about ten minutes and a pressure bandage is applied for up to six hours.

However, if the examination reveals that there are narrowing points in the coronary arteries(coronary vessels) Arteries that supply the heart muscle itself with oxygenated blood. that require treatment, a balloon dilatation1. Dilatation of the ventricles or aorta. 2. Widening of constrictions in vessels and valves. (PTCA(=percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty). Use of a balloon catheter to dilate narrowed coronary arteries.) – usually with stent implantationInsertion of a stent. – is generally performed directly after the diagnostic catheter examination. The patient is then cared for on the monitoring ward. About three hours after dilatation, the catheter is pulled out and a pressure bandage is applied for up to twelve hours. Since patients remain in hospital for up to four days after a dilatation procedure, these patients are transferred to one of the normal wards the next day after the monitoring phase. Patients who have not undergone dilatation remain on the monitoring ward for one night and can leave the hospital the following morning after the puncture site has been checked.