What is the name of the approach where the catheter is passed from the right atrium through the wall to the left atrium to access pressures directly?

What is the name of the approach where the catheter is passed from the right atrium through the wall to the left atrium to access pressures directly?

• A. Transaortic approach
• B. Transseptal approach
• C. Femoral approach
• D. Jugular approach

Answer: (B)

Transseptal access is the route that lets you reach the left atrium from the right atrium by crossing the interatrial septum. In practice, you gain venous access (usually femoral or jugular), advance into the right atrium, and then puncture the fossa ovalis to create a passage through which a catheter can enter the left atrium. This direct left atrial access lets you measure left atrial pressures and obtain LA blood samples, and it’s essential for certain left‑sided heart procedures that can’t be done easily from the arterial side. This approach is distinct from arterial routes like transaortic, and from simple access sites. The transaortic path would involve going through the arterial system into the left heart without crossing from right atrium to left atrium, while the other options describe where the catheter enters the body, not how it crosses into the left atrium.

Transseptal access is the route that lets you reach the left atrium from the right atrium by crossing the interatrial septum. In practice, you gain venous access (usually femoral or jugular), advance into the right atrium, and then puncture the fossa ovalis to create a passage through which a catheter can enter the left atrium. This direct left atrial access lets you measure left atrial pressures and obtain LA blood samples, and it’s essential for certain left‑sided heart procedures that can’t be done easily from the arterial side.

This approach is distinct from arterial routes like transaortic, and from simple access sites. The transaortic path would involve going through the arterial system into the left heart without crossing from right atrium to left atrium, while the other options describe where the catheter enters the body, not how it crosses into the left atrium.