Treatment
The therapy depends on the underlying disease. However, if a heart attack or pulmonary embolism is suspected, a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible. Since every minute counts in the case of a heart attack, the emergency doctor must be called if the slightest suspicion is detected.
As a first-aider, you should ensure calm and check the consciousness and breathing of the person affected. If there is a circulatory arrest, the patient should be resuscitated in any case until the ambulance arrives. The emergency doctor supplies the patient with oxygen and medication.
These should relieve both the pain and the anxiety and prevent the formation of further blood clots. At the hospital, an attempt is made to clear the occluded coronary artery as quickly as possible. In this way the damage to the heart muscle is kept as small as possible.
There are two different methods for this “clearing” of the vessel. The first is primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of this method is to make the narrowed artery pass through again so that normal blood flow to the heart muscle is restored.
The physician anesthetizes the patient locally in order to push a small tube (catheter) through the inguinal artery up to the blocked vessel. An inflatable balloon is attached to the end of the tube. When the physician has detected the narrowing or blockage, the balloon is inflated to expand the artery.
This causes the blood to flow again. In addition, a so-called stent can be inserted at the constriction. This keeps the artery open.
This method is the therapy of choice today. However, this only applies if it can be carried out within 90 minutes of the initial medical contact (emergency doctor). If this is not the case, a lysis therapy is applied. This involves injecting the patient with an active substance that is intended to help dissolve the clogged blood clot. After all this, the patient receives a follow-up treatment with medication and recovers in a rehabilitation facility.
