Does It Make a Difference Who Activates the Cath Lab for PCI for STEMI?

Yes. In a small study at a community hospital, having emergency physicians activate the cath lab and summon an interventional cardiologist concurrently decreased door-to-balloon time by 41 minutes.

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been shown to be superior to fibrinolytic therapy in the treatment of ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) if it is performed within 90 minutes. Yet organizing a team to perform PCI within this time frame is logistically challenging and requires significant interdisciplinary organization as well as parallel processing.

In a retrospective before-and-after study, the authors describe the effect on door-to-balloon time of having the attending emergency physician in a community hospital activate the cardiac catheterization lab and summon the interventional cardiologist concurrently. No other changes were made to the STEMI protocol. Before the change, the EP activated the team onl…

Reviewing Author

Richard D. Zane, MD, FAAEM

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Richard D. Zane, MD, FAAEM

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose