Patent Hemostasis Impact in Clinical Routine: Large Monocentric Echo-Doppler Study of Radial Artery Patency After Coronary Catheterization.

BACKGROUND Radial access is currently the first line of access in interventional cardiology. Nevertheless, this technique carries a 1%-10% risk of radial artery occlusion (RAO) based on series. METHODS We conducted a large-scale echo-Doppler evaluation of radial patency including prospectively all patients who underwent coronary angiography and/or angioplasty with radial catheterization at our center in 2018. RESULTS A total of 1106 patients were enrolled in the cohort. Average patient age was 70 years, 24.5% were females and 75.5% were males, and 28.3% were diabetics. Five Fr and 6 Fr devices were used in 527 procedures and 565 procedures, respectively. Our study highlighted a very low RAO rate (0.99%). These results are mainly due to the high attention given to patent hemostasis, which was achieved in 1091 patients (98.6%). According to the literature, female gender is a multivariate predictive factor of RAO (P<.01). Furthermore, we confirm the protective nature of heparin (P=.04) with an average heparin dose of 69.73 IU/kg. CONCLUSIONS Our study focused on a large population with 1106 patients who underwent radial catheterization shows that a very low rate of RAO (0.99%) can be achieved. These results are correlated with a high attention to patent hemostasis and a close collaboration between the medical and paramedical staff.