Treatment for heart attacks
- By:groshan fabiola
Medical emergencies such as heart attack have to be treated immediately. A delayed treatment might lead to severe complications and even death. That is why all specialists recommend an early treatment in order to increase the chances for recovery.
Treatment for this condition might begin in the ambulance or in the emergency room. The certitude is that the treatment will continue in a special area called a coronary care unit or CCU.
In the initial phase, at the hospital the doctors will work quickly to restore blood flow to the heart. A close monitoring of patient’s vital signs is also done.
The most common treatments that are used are thrombolytic drugs, also known as clot busters, which are useful in dissolving blood clots that are blocking blood flow to the heart. If these drugs are administrated soon after the heart attack begins, they can limit or even prevent permanent damage to the heart. These drugs are 100 percent effective if they are administrated in less than an hour after the start of the heart attack symptoms.
We can mention other ways of treatment such as angioplasty procedures that are used to open blocked or narrowed coronary arteries. A stent may be placed in the artery in order to keep it open.
As an alternative for treating this problem we might mention coronary artery bypass surgery. This intervention uses arteries or veins from other parts of the body to bypass the blocked coronary arteries.
The included tests are electrocardiogram, blood tests, nuclear heart scan, cardiac catheterization and coronary angiography.
The most common medicines that are used for treating heart attacks are beta blockers that are used to decrease the workload on the heart by slowing the heart rate. This makes the heart beat with less force and will lead to a lower blood pressure. These types of medicines are also used in treating chest pain and o correct irregular heart beat.
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors are also used, because they lower the blood pressure and reduce the strain on your heart. For some patients, these medicines are administrated after a heart attack to increase the survival rate and to help slow down further weakening of the heart.
Other medicines such as nitroglycerin are used to relax the blood vessels. Anticoagulants and antiplatelet medications are also useful.
Some cases require medicines to relieve pain and anxiety, medicines for treating arrhythmias or oxygen therapy.About the author:
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