Bedrest post angio?

During an angio procedure the femoral artery is punctured. The bedrest and straight leg are to prevent re-opening the artery. I have seen a non-compliant angio patient shoot a jet of blood out of his groin that hit the ceiling and opposite wall before I was able to apply pressure! I have also seen large hematomas.

As for the period of bed rest, I think it's just based on physician preference.

Some cardiologists will order 4 hours of bed rest once hemostasis is achieved after sheath removal while others will order 6+ hours.

I have had patients bleed even after their BR period is complete. Applied pressure, achieved hemostasis, notified cardiologist of findings and ordered 2 hours of bed rest. So again, it just depends.

Is this a homework question?

Everything was answered above.

Bedrest time can also vary based on the type of closure device used--Angioseal, Perclose (?), manual pressure, etc.

I've seen a patient bleed a week after his procedure.

The tele unit for which I worked had post-cath order sets, so, unless the cardiologist wrote a different amount of time (and I never saw this)--all pts. were on bedrest for the same amount of time.

I had two angios when I was 18 years old. I remember after the second one, I was laying in bed and pulled my knees up because that's the way I was used to laying. I didn't have my legs like that for more than two minutes before the nurses came flying over and forced me to put them down... and I had a hematoma the size of a golfball at the site.