Radial Approach to Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Abstract

The radial approach is considered alternative to the traditional femoral approach to perform coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Transradial compared to transfemoral PCI has been consistently shown to be equally effective but safer, since  it significantly reduces access site related and bleeding complications. Additionally, it increases patient comfort and reduces hospitalization cost. Modern interventional strategies and aggressive antithrombotic regimens have limited ischemic adverse events following PCI. At the downside, bleeding complications remain a serious problem and adversely affect outcomes. They can be reduced with novel pharmacologic agents but still have unacceptably high rates and are mostly related to femoral access. In this context the radial approach seems a reasonable choice to further reduce access related bleeding. A concise overview of recent data supporting a more widespread dissemination of transradial PCI and a brief presentation of the most important pertinent technical issues are attempted herein.