Evaluating Clinical Outcomes and Complications of Left Heart Catheterization as a Therapeutic Procedure in Acute Coronary Syndrome

IntroductionCardiac catheterization procedure involve various techniques such as right heart catheterization (RHC) and left heart catheterization (LHC), out of which we will only be considering left heart catheterization for this research.LHC procedure includes aortic angiography, coronary angiography; graft angiography and left ventricular angiography.It can trigger arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia or bradycardia.RHC arrhythmias' may include supraventricular arrhythmias, ventricular arrhythmias as well as right bundle branch block and complete heart block. During left heart catheterization (LHC) ventricular AbstractObjective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence and types of complications related to cardiac catheterization in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), identify the most common adverse events such as bleeding, infections, pulmonary edema, contrast-induced nephropathy, arrhythmias, and stroke, and provide recommendations for their prevention, early detection, and management.Methods: A prospective study was conducted at Hameed Latif Hospital, Lahore, involving 220 patients diagnosed with ACS who underwent cardiac catheterization.Participants aged 18-75 years were selected through simple random sampling.Patients with prior CABG, bleeding disorders, advanced renal disease, pregnancy, or psychiatric illness were excluded.Data were collected on common post-catheterization complications, including vascular bleeding, infections, arrhythmias, contrast-induced nephropathy, stroke, and death.Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board, and informed consent was secured from all participants.Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26, with results expressed as means, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages, applying a significance level of 0.05. Results:The patients had a mean age of 59.42 9.36 years, with a slight male predominance (55.3%).Key complications identified included access site bleeding (0.9%), hematoma formation (2.6%), pulmonary edema (0.9%), cardiac arrhythmias (0.9%), cerebrovascular accidents (0.4%), acute stent thrombosis (0.4%), and death (0.4%).Radial access was used in 82.9% of procedures.No cases of contrast-induced nephropathy were reported. Conclusion:The detailed focus on coronary angiography provided valuable insights into specific outcomes and significant complications.This research underscores the importance of specialized techniques and risk management in cardiac catheterization to better overall patient outcomes.