Description
The ones that reach the ward
If you work in a hospital that performs intervention but you are not the operator, this is the more relevant half of the book. Retroperitoneal haemorrhage, contrast nephropathy, late tamponade, pseudoaneurysm, subacute stent thrombosis — all of them present on a ward, hours after the procedure, to whoever is covering.
That doctor was not in the laboratory and does not know what was technically difficult about the case. They are nonetheless the person who has to notice.
Recognition before management
Each complication is written recognition first: what the patient looks like, what the observations do, and how long after the procedure it typically declares. Management follows as an action sequence. The commonest failure is not treating these badly — it is attributing a quiet tachycardia to pain or anxiety for six hours.
The in-lab half
Perforation graded by severity, abrupt closure, dissection, arrhythmia, equipment entrapment and no-reflow, each as an ordered response.
Relevant to
Interventional operators, but equally ward physicians, intensivists, emergency clinicians and nursing staff in units that receive post-procedure patients — a much larger group than the operators, and the one that usually has to make the call.
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