As long as man is capable, there’s one thing you can rest assured of – and that is that human ingenuity and innovation will continue to stretch the boundaries, slowly turning science fiction into science fact. On the frontier of precision medicine, cardiac implant processes are changing as well with fluoroscopy becoming a trend that might just help improve efficiency, procedural outcomes, and quality of life for the patient. But what exactly is it? Can it make a real difference in the field of cardiac health? Well, let’s find out.
Touching base – Understanding Fluoroscopy
Before the advent of video, we had still pictures. Then people began to realize that if you merge still pictures together so fast, then you can create motion pictures, much in the same way you can make a drawn character in a book appear to moving when you flip the pages by drawing on each actual page. Well, that’s the basis for how fluoroscopy works.
You may be familiar with an X-ray or at least heard of it. Then, you can think of a fluoroscopy as an upgrade. So what’s the difference between an X-ray and a fluoroscopy? While both are methods of medical imaging, fluoroscopy provides video footage as opposed to an X-ray which only shoots still images of the body’s interior.
All in all, fluoroscopy can help physicians get live video images of various body organs or instruments during a procedure such as a cardiac implant. The fluoroscopy machine may be static in a room, but in other cases, it can be portable and moved to the patient if there’s a need to do so.
Using fluoroscopy for cardiac implants – How it elevates traditional solutions
Fluoroscopy technology is being put to work in many ways when it comes to cardiac care. In some instances, technicians are using the technology to assess blockages in blood vessels by continuously assessing the movement of blood in a live x-ray video feed, if you will.
Additionally, fluoroscopy is also lending a hand when it comes to positioning cardiac implants. In the past, surgeons would make an incision in the collarbone and then pass the cardiac implant into the body via an introducer and they would rely on X-ray scans to guide them into position. However, given that these were mostly still images, they couldn’t provide accurate and timely feedback, until the surgeon took another scan after or during the procedure.
The fluoroscopy machine has changed all that. It now gives doctors real-time imaging of how the instrument is working, usually via a TV monitor, so that they can guide the movement in real time. With this technology, the likelihood is:
- Greater accurately of implant placement
- Faster implant placement
- Faster procedure turnaround times
Overall, fluoroscopy technology is improving various facets of implant procedures, ensuring better health outcomes for patients and greater efficiency for physicians as well.
What types of cardiac implants can be placed using fluoroscopy?
Any cardiac implant that you would fit into a patient using a catheter or introducer, would largely benefit from fluoroscopy. However, it may be particularly beneficial in cases of very miniature devices, which require great care and precision from the surgeon.
That being said, the sky is the limit when it comes to what cardiac implants are eligible for placement via fluoroscopy, and some of the most common ones include:
- Cardiac loop records
- ICDs or implant cardioverter defibrillators
- Pacemakers
- Ventricular assist devices and so on
In cases where devices need to be placed directly on the heart muscles, valves or blood vessels, fluoroscopy-based cardiac implantation can be especially essential. They can help map out very precise pathways for surgeons to follow so that they can safely place an implant to a target location, without inadvertently damaging the heart and its accessories.
The benefits of fluoroscopy-guided implant positioning
There is a reason why fluoroscopy technology is getting a lot of airtime these days. In fact, there’s not just one, but multiple reasons why that’s the case and they are as follows:
- Precision – Surgeons can visualize internal organs and structures in real time, gaining the data they need for very precise targeting in terms of the implant’s location.
- Safety – Unlike traditional X-technologies that expose large sections of the body to radiation, fluoroscopy directs it to just a particular position of interest. Furthermore, it can reduce exposure time due to how it can speed up the procedure
- Visual Confirmation – There’s no second guessing whether the implant has been positioned correctly as fluoroscopy provides visual confirmation that proves this.
Additionally, fluoroscopy-guided implant position can also help reduce the size of the incision area, which can go a long way to minimize side effects such as bleeding and inflammation.
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