What is it?
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) is a non-surgical procedure where a stent is inserted into the blocked coronary blood vessel via a catheter introduced though a vessel in the groin or arm to open up the occluded coronary blood vessel.
Who is it given to?
Adults with a STEMI whose symptoms started no more than 12 hours before first contacting a healthcare professional should be able to receive PCI as soon as possible, but within 120 minutes of when they could have received fibrinolysis. This is because for every 30 mins a blood vessel is occluded, the patient will lose one years life expectancy.
Where and when is it available?
Available at Raigmore 9am-5pm Monday-Friday. Available at Aberdeen 24hrs every day.
Therefore, we can see it is often not possible in remote and rural areas of Highland to offer PCI. So, an alternate method of re-perfusion therapy is required.