Health Watch: New Heart Catheterization

ATLANTA - If you're having heart problems, it's important to get a good look inside your heart, to see what going on. Doctors usually do that with a catheter, or thin tube, threaded up through a patient's groin. But, at St. Joseph's Hospital, cardiologists have found a new way to get the to heart through the wrist.

At 69, Mike Brown is fit enough to swim three miles a week, but when the Atlanta estate lawyer landed in St. Joseph's Hospital with chest pains, his family's long history of heart disease had him worried.

"So, well, in the back of my mind, 'maybe it's your turn,'" said Brown.

To find out what is going on inside Mike Brown's heart, interventional cardiologist Dr. Jack Chen is going to perform a heart catheterization.

Dr. Chen isn't accessing Brown's heart the typical way, through his groin, but rather through his wrist, or radial artery.

That approach is new, and is only used by only about 3 percent of U.S. cardiologists. Dr. Chen says that going through the wrist can drop the risk of bleeding by 70 percent.

Another big difference in the approaches is the recovery. With a traditional approach through the groin, a patient has to lie flat on their back, without moving, for up to six hours to reduce the risk of bleeding. If doctors go through the wrist, a patient can be back on their feet almost right away.

St. Joseph's hospital has created a special recovery lounge to help patients get back to business.

Juanita Bowman of east Cobb County underwent the procedure in both ways. Bowman had the procedure done where doctors performed the catheterization through the groin and the County woman had to lie still and stay overnight. When Bowman had the same procedure done through her wrist, she only had to wear a wristband.

"In about an hour and a half, they take that tourniquet off, there's a spot there, and you're able to go home, get in the car. It's just wonderful," said Bowman.

It only took Dr. Chen a few minutes to locate the source of Bowman's chest pain.

Dr. Chen placed a stent by going through Brown's wrist. A stent is like a tiny spring that will stay in Brown's artery and help keep it open.

"This is real easy, I don't have hardly any pain," said Brown.

Most patients will be able to go back home the same day.

Because Brown has had a heart attack, he will have to stick around the hospital for a couple of days.

But Brown wasn't complaining.

"I'm very blessed, I'm not lucky, I'm blessed," said Brown.