What if PCI is indicated after the diagnostic cath is performed?
(See CSA Medical Newsletter, Summer 2006) PCI is commonly performed immediately after a diagnostic cath in a hospital cath lab where cardiac surgery is available if needed for back-up (“ad-hoc”). In a freestanding outpatient cath lab (the lab not on the campus of a hospital with a cardiac surgery program), PCI is usually scheduled for another day at an inpatient lab (“staged” PCI). If an outpatient lab is located on the campus of a hospital with a cardiac surgery program, the option exists to perform ad-hoc PCI “under arrangement” with the hospital, or to transfer the patient on a gurney to an inpatient lab for the procedure on the same day.
