Transradial approach for coronary angiography and percutaneos coronary intervention: personal experience

BACKGROUND: The transradial approach (TRA) has already become popular worldwide, but only recently has gained acceptance among Iraqi interventional cardiologists. The aim of this study is to document single operator experience with TRA and to test the benefit of assessing dual hand circulation before the TRA. It was an observational prospective study. Over a 2-year period (Jan 1, 2015, to Dec 31, 2016), 1561 patients underwent transradial coronary angiography (CAG) and/or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by a single operator. Patients were divided into two groups: A (the first 450 patients), in which dual hand circulation was assessed by Allen’s test or plethysmography/oximetry test before TRA, and B (1111 patients) in which TRA was done without assessing dual hand circulation. RESULTS: A total of 1561 patients were included, 69.1% males and 30.9% females. The mean age was (57 ± 10.0) years. We performed 1684 procedures (1005 CAG and 679 PCIs). The total transradial success rate was 95.6%, and PCI procedural success rate was 96.5%. The crossover rate from radial to femoral access was 4.4%. The primary causes for crossover were severe tortuosity of the aorta and brachiocephalic trunk, radial artery spasm, puncture failure, and radial loop. The main complication was radial artery occlusion (RAO) (3.7%). There were no cases of hand ischemia or complications that need surgical repair or blood transfusion. No statistically significant difference between groups A and B was observed regarding hand ischemia, the incidence of RAO, or the crossover rate. CONCLUSIONS: TRA is safe and can be applied in the majority of cases. The routine assessment of dual hand circulation before TRA might not be necessary.