Bed rest post diagnostic cardiac catheterisation : how much is enough?

Abstract

Through a quasi-experimental design, this study was undertaken with the main aim to examine and compare the effects of bed rest time needed by patients undergoing diagnostic femoral cardiac catheterisation with 5Fr catheters. The study involved 32 participants undergoing this procedure at the Cardiac Catheterisation Suite within Mater Dei Hospital, Malta. These participants were casually assigned into a comparison group (n=16) with the standard regime of two hours of bed rest time and an experimental group (n=l6) with an alternative regime of one hour of bed rest time. At termination of bed rest time the respectively assigned patients were ambulated and if no adverse complications occurred, they were discharged within one hour. The findings obtained showed that there were no statistically significant difference between the two groups with regards to complication rates and comfort. From the study sample, only one participant had his bed rest time delayed by thirty minutes due to bleeding. The complications experienced were minor, including oozing, bleeding and small haematoma formation. Thus, one hour of immobilisation time after 5Fr diagnostic cardiac catheterisation is to be considered as a safe practice.