The new Interventional Cardiology Unit of the Sainte-Clotilde Clinic, operational since July 2020, houses two digitized angiography rooms which are equipped with the latest technologies (including a new radiology machine), with the adjoining rooms necessary for the proper functioning of the unit, as well as the apartments of the on-call doctors welcoming cardiological emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
A major real estate investment effort has been made for this 600m² space, entirely dedicated to interventional cardiology, on the 4th and 5th floors of the new tower built in the west wing of the clinic.
The use of digitized angiography rooms is subject to the authorization of the Regional Health Agency and to date, 3 sites benefit from these authorizations: 1 at the CHU South site, 1 at the CHU North site and 1 at the Clinique Sainte-Clotilde, which has a long tradition of innovation in interventional cardiology.
Interventional cardiology on Reunion Island
Since 1991, all the first interventions of interventional cardiology on Reunion Island have been carried out by the team of cardiologists at Clinique Sainte-Clotilde:
- 1st coronary angioplasty (dilation of the arteries of the heart) in 1991
- 1st intracoronary stent in 1993
- 1st dilation of the valves of the heart (mitral valves, aortic valves or pulmonary valves)
- 1st TAVI (aortic valve replacement by catheter) in 2014
In 30 years, more than 60,000 examinations have been carried out in the cardiology department and currently more than 3,000 interventional cardiology procedures are carried out annually by the team of 6 interventional cardiologists at the Clinique Sainte-Clotilde, assisted by 7 nurses and radiology, in the presence of an anesthesiologist and a nurse specialized in anesthesia (IADE).
The service is approved for the training of interns specializing in cardiology in the Indian Ocean.
Similarly, since October 2016, coronary angiograms can be performed on an outpatient basis, as this brings many advantages: gain in quality of life because the return home is done the same day, reduce infections associated with care, control health costs with a 15% lower cost of intervention compared to hospitalization.
