Safety and efficacy of the transradial access when performing percutaneous coronary interventions to treat chronic total coronary occlusions

Abstract

To the Editor, Transradial access has been popularized in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). However, the percutaneous management of chronic total coronary occlusions (CTO) is still predominantly via transfemoral access. This study assessed the efficacy and safety profile of a transradial access strategy in a PCI on a CTO and its impact on hospital stay. A total of 237 consecutive patients treated with PCI on their CTO were included in a single-center registry that compared the results of 2 vascular access strategies used over 2 consecutive periods of time: transfemoral between May 2013 and October 2018, and transradial from November 2018. A total of 40 patients were excluded from the analysis of the transfemoral strategy via transradial access and 9 were excluded from the transradial strategy via transfemoral or mixed radial-femoral access (figure 1). The Hospital Universitario de Salamanca clinical research ethics committee approved the study protocol and obtained the patients’ informed consent. Figure 1. Flow chart of the patients included in the study. ACS, acute coronary syndrome; PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention. The patients who not have any PCI related complications remained in observation at the cardiology day hospital for, at least, 6 to 8 hours. Those who remained asymptomatic and without alterations on their...