Do We Still Need to Assess Post-procedural Radial Artery Compression Time and Radial Artery Occlusion in Patients Who Undergo Transradial Coronary Intervention?

Background and objective Transradial access (TRA) for interventional coronary procedures has now been widely accepted as the preferred vascular site approach. The duration of post-procedure compression has been shown to be a crucial factor and different hemostatic devices used in this regard have been compared. In this study, we aimed to compare the post-procedure compression time, radial artery occlusion (RAO), hematoma, and bleeding between the transradial (TR) band and AIR band for radial artery patency among patients presenting at a tertiary care hospital. Methodology This observational study was conducted at the Department of Cardiology of Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Sulman Al Khalifa Specialist Cardiac Centre, Awali, Bahrain from 06/03/2022 to 05/06/2022. The research involved patients of either gender who had a positive Barbeau test (type A to C) and were receiving percutaneous coronary intervention via a transradial route. Patients who underwent transradial coronary intervention were classified into two separate groups, depending on whether an AIR band (group A) or a TR band (group B) compression was used. Following coronary catheterization, radial hemostatic compression devices were used. The results were documented both during and after the hemostatic compression. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 23 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results Of the total 100 patients included in the study, the majority were males (86%) and aged more than 50 years (83%). AIR band was successfully removed in 32 patients (64%) in less than four hours, compared to the TR band, which was removed in less than four hours in two patients (4%) only (p=0.001). The incidences of bleeding (p=0.790) and RAO (p=0.495) were similar between the AIR band group and the TR band group. Hematoma was not seen in any of the patients in either group. Conclusion AIR band was observed to be more efficacious in decreasing the radial artery compression time. However, the difference in RAO was insignificant in the short term, and follow-up studies are required to see if the AIR band is associated with any long-term benefits.