A catheter is a thin, hollow, flexible tube that can be inserted into a body cavity, duct, or blood vessel to allow passage of fluids, deliver medications, drain secretions, or perform measurements. Catheters are among the most widely used devices in modern medicine and appear across virtually every clinical specialty.
In cardiovascular medicine, the term catheter most commonly refers to cardiac catheters used during cardiac catheterisation procedures. A thin catheter is passed through a blood vessel (typically the radial artery at the wrist) and navigated under X-ray guidance to the heart and coronary arteries, enabling coronary angiography, pressure measurements, and interventional procedures such as balloon angioplasty and stenting. Ablation catheters are used in electrophysiology to deliver radiofrequency or cryothermal energy to create targeted scar tissue and treat arrhythmias.
Other important catheter types in cardiac care include the central venous catheter (CVC) for delivering medications and monitoring central venous pressure in intensive care, the pulmonary artery (Swan-Ganz) catheter for measuring cardiac output and filling pressures in complex heart failure, and the urinary catheter for monitoring fluid output in critically ill patients.
For cardiac arrest survivors, catheter-based procedures form a central part of the diagnostic and treatment pathway: coronary angiography and PCI are typically performed within hours of resuscitation to identify and treat coronary artery blockages.
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