USEFULNESS OF THE TRANSRADIAL APPROACH FOR CORONARY ANGIOGRAPHY AND PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION

The transradial approach(TRA)has become popular for coronary angiography(CAG) and percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI)because of lower invasiveness and the ease of hemostasis.Thus,we reviewed approach sites in cases of CAG and PCI at Fuji City General Hospital from January 2000 through November 2002.The TRA was used in 1156 cases of elective CAG and 411 cases of elective PCI.The number of cases using the TRA increased year by year.In a questionnaire survey after CAG or PCI at our hospital,patients preferred the TRA for subsequent CAG.These results suggest that the TRA wil become more common in the future. (Tokyo Jikeikai Medical Journal 2005;120:245-9)