Why sedation?

Is it claustrophobic like MRI?

I don't think so. I'm having one tomorrow at 1 pm. I'll post back. I think they sedate you to keep you still. The venoplasty that will follow is going to be gross. I won't look. . . .

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info...aphy#part_four

A related video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvQjB3MkX0M

thanks for the replies

It was uneventful, not hardly as stressful as a closed MRI

Indeed. The venogram is uneventful. Venoplasty is another matter.

Thank you for posting this. I'm planning to have a venogram done as well, and the need for anesthesia and sedation makes me nervous, so it's nice to hear your stories.

Was the venogram just used for diagnosis? Or was it also used to help advise if and how the surgery should be done?

Also, have any of you done an IVUS?

It's very mild sedation. Just calms you down a bit. Come to think of it, I didn't have any until the venoplasty. I don't think you need sedation or anesthesia for the venogram. It's a simply contrast die xray procedure.

My venogram was performed to check on the patency of vein on the non-surgical side. Since it looked fine, I'm not getting another rib-resection.

During venoplasty, they are effectively doing venograms as they go. It's used to test and retest, to see where to expand the balloon and whether it did anything useful.

Two months out I still have a small dot on my arm where they inserted the wire for the venoplasty. It's a tiny scar.

So did you all just have sedation and no local anesthesia? I can understand sedation being used for calming down purposes, but not sure why anesthesia would be needed. I thought it's just a needle that would inject dye (similar to a needle if you were getting your blood drawn). Is that correct or am I missing something?

I'm not sure they used either for the venogram. I had venoplasty right after. For that they have to cut your vein a bit. They doped me up a bit with fentanyl or whatever it is that killed a bunch of people when it was cut with heroin.