Coronary catheterization via distal transradial access in patient with superficial radial artery: a case report

BACKGROUND: The routine radial artery (RA) puncture may fail when anatomical variation of the RA is encountered. Superficial radial artery (SRA) is one of the anatomic variants of the RA, with the incidence of about 1 to 1.5%. Recently, distal transradial access (dTRA) has emerged as a novel approach for coronary catheterization (CC), but performing CC through dTRA in patient with SRA has never been reported. CASE PRESENTATION: A 57-year-old male was admitted to hospital due to intermittent chest pain for 4 days. He was diagnosed with unstable angina pectoris and planned to receive coronary angiography (CAG). Before the operation, the existence and course of SRA were confirmed by palpation and ultrasonography with color Doppler. We marked the puncture site under the guidance of ultrasonography and successfully performed CC through the dTRA during patient’s hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: As far as we know, this is the first report that presents a case of SRA and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) treatment in which was successfully performed through dTRA. It is safe and feasible to perform CC via dTRA in case of SRA, and dTRA seems to be the preferred access.