Bedrest post angio?

Why do you need to keep leg straight after angio? And why bed rest differs?
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.