Dr Hendrickse's Practice
Interventional cardiology is a branch of cardiology that deals specifically with the catheter based treatment of structural heart diseases. A large number of procedures can be performed on the heart by catheterization. This involves the insertion of a rod into the femoral artery (but in practice, any large peripheral artery or vein) and cannulating the heart under X-ray visualization (most commonly fluoroscopy).
The main advantages of using the interventional cardiology or radiology approach are the avoidance of the scars and pain and the short post-operative recovery.