The placement of a Swan-Ganz catheter allows specialists to diagnose or test for major heart issues without requiring you to undergo major surgery. Usually, it’s a diagnostic tool for people in serious cardiac distress, but that’s not its only use. It’s a diagnostic tool for a variety of heart and lung ailments.
Your doctor may also refer to it as pulmonary artery catheterization or right heart catheterization.
Who Needs The Placement of Swan-Ganz Catheter?
A Swan-Ganz catheter may be used to diagnose the causes of pulmonary high blood pressure, cardiogenic shock (when your heart can’t pump enough blood), and unexplained shortness of breath.
Other conditions the procedure might look for include:
- Fluid build-up in the lungs
- A blood vessel blocked by a clot
- Congenital heart illness
They'll be able to find the amount of blood your heart is pumping and monitor the functioning of your heart valves. Your doctor may decide to draw blood from several places within your heart in order to check your blood oxygen flow.
Sometimes, doctors use the Swan-Ganz catheter to examine people who are being prepared for heart or lung transplant procedures.
How It Is Performed
The procedure is usually performed in an intensive-care unit or cardiac catheterization laboratory. The doctor will first give you a sedative for relaxation and then have you lie on a padded table.
They will cut into a vein located either in your arm, near the groin, or neck. A wire is then put through the blood vessel, after which a catheter is placed over the wire allowing for the removal of the wire. Your doctor will then move the Swan-Ganz catheter through the vein, using the tube as a guide.
The catheter has an inflatable balloon tip that temporarily blocks the pulmonary artery and allows the doctor to take pressure readings. By doing so, they will be measuring the pressure in the left atrium indirectly. If the doctor wants to take blood samples, they can be taken through the catheter { MSD Manuals: “Pulmonary Artery Catheterization.”}.
Your doctor carefully navigates it to the top chamber on the heart’s right side.
How You Can Prepare for The Test
First, consult your doctor about how you ought to prepare yourself before the start of the procedure. They might ask you to fast for several hours before the procedure or to stop taking certain medicines until after the procedure. They may also want to conduct some additional tests like a chest x-ray.
Post-Procedure Complications
The procedure is simple, so complications are rare. However, you should call your doctor if you experience:
- Discoloration, numbness, or coolness at the point of insertion.
- Bleeding that won’t stop, even when pressure is applied.
- Pain, reddening, or yellow or green discharge draining from the site.
- Irregular pulse.
- Fever that has gone over 101°F (38.3°C) or chills.
- Feeling pressure, chest pain, or shortness of breath.
- Fainting, dizziness, or excess fatigue.
- Coughing up blood or mucus that is yellow or green in color.
Other rare complications include clotting in the pulmonary artery, pneumothorax (an air pocket that develops between the membranes covering the lungs), arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), or infection.
What To Expect Post-Procedure
You’ll likely wake up disoriented and a little groggy. Complete recovery usually takes a week or less, and, if your health permits, you may be able to walk around within 6 hours after the procedure.
Ask your doctor to provide you with more information about how to take good care of the incision location. While at home, avoid strenuous activity for 2 to 5 days. If the doctor passes the catheter via your groin, avoid taking a bath, swimming, and sexual activity until your doctor clears you.
Conclusion
It might seem scary to get a catheter inserted, but this particular procedure is safe and effective. Most importantly — it can diagnose a life-threatening heart condition that your doctor might otherwise never have found.
