Sitting up post angioplasty: a new sheath technology.
A new angioplasty sheath has been developed which permits a patient to sit up to a 60 degree Semi-Fowler position post angioplasty with the sheath in place. To determine the safety of this device, we studied eleven (11) patients undergoing Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) compared with 11 PTCA patients treated in a standard fashion. The patients were evaluated for the length of time the sheath remained in place (study 17 +/- 6 hours versus control 19 +/- 5 hours), the time required to achieve hemostasis upon sheath removal (66 +/- 52 minutes versus 81 +/- 89 minutes), and the need for analgesics (frequency of 1.9 times versus frequency of 6.4 times per patient). Complications in the study group were 0 episodes of severe bleeding at the insertion site versus 1 episode in the control group, slight oozing in 8 study patients versus 7 control patients, small hematoma in 2 study patients versus 1 control patient, and large hematoma formation in 1 study patient versus 0 control patients. In summary, the use of a soft, flexible sheath allows the patient to safely site up in the Semi-Fowler position post PTCA with significant improvement of discomfort.