Transradial and Transfemoral Approach in Patients with Prior Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

The relationship between periprocedural complications and the type of vascular access in patients with prior history of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and treated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) is less investigated than in the overall group of patients treated with PCI. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between the type of vascular access and selected periprocedural complications in a group of patients with prior history of CABG and treated with PCIs. Based on a Polish nationwide registry of interventional cardiology procedures called ORPKI, the authors analyzed 536,826 patients treated with PCI between 2014 and 2018. The authors extracted 32,225 cases with prior history of CABG. Then, patients with femoral and radial access as well as right and left radial access were compared. This comparison was proceeded by propensity score matching (PSM). After PSM, a multifactorial analysis revealed that patients treated with PCI from femoral access were significantly more often related to periprocedural deaths (odds ratio [OR]: 1.79; 95%, confidence interval [CI]: 1.1–3.0, p = 0.02) and cardiac arrests (OR: 1.98; 95%, CI: 1.38–2.87, p < 0.001). After inclusion of the Killip class grade and the occurrence of cardiac arrests before PCI into the PSM, the significance remained for procedural related cardiac arrests (OR: 1.55; 95%, CI: 1.07–2.28, p = 0.022]). However, a comparison of right and left radial access showed no significant differences between procedure-related complications. It has been confirmed that there is a statistical association between femoral access (compared to radial access) and a higher rate of periprocedural cardiac arrests in patients with prior history of CABG treated with PCI.