Cardiac catheterization isn't new to Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital. In fact, we opened our first cardiac cath lab more than a decade ago. Since then, we've used it to perform thousands of procedures.

Recently, we completed a major expansion to our cath lab facility, resulting in two state-of-the-art cath labs with room to add another lab in the future.

The procedures performed in our cardiac cath labs are called minimally invasive, because the incisions required to do them are tiny, a mere fraction of an inch. The small incision size promotes a quicker, easier recovery for the patient.

Here's how cardiac catheterization works: Through a tiny incision in the groin area, we insert a flexible tube called a catheter. The catheter is used to inject a special dye into the artery, which allows us to create a real-time, moving digital image of that artery and observe its function.

The digital image can be used as a diagnostic tool to study arterial blockages. It can also be used as a visual guide for angioplasty, a procedure that uses the catheter to open a blocked artery. Often, the angioplasty procedure includes the placement of a stent, a tube-like structure that keeps the artery from re-blocking over time.