Abstract
Introduction:
Transradial approach (TRA) has gained significant popularity in the neuroendovascular world over the past few years. The purpose of this study is to report early experience in TRA from high volume centers.
Methods:
We reviewed charts from 4 institutions in the United States to include consecutive patients who underwent diagnostic or interventional neuroendovascular procedure through TRA from July 2018 to July 2019. Collected data included baseline characteristics, procedural variables, whether there was crossover to transfemoral access and complications.
Results:
A total of 1272 patients were included in the series (age 57.2 ± 15.3, 46.3% females). Out of those, 1054 (82.9%) patients underwent diagnostic cerebral angiograms and 218 (17.1%) underwent interventional procedures. Successfully completed procedures included aneurysm primary coiling (62 patients), stent assisted coiling (44 patients), flow diversion (40 patients), balloon assisted coiling (21 patients), and stroke thrombectomy (24 patients). The large vessels were selected as following: right vertebral artery (VA) in 74.2% of the cases, right internal carotid artery (ICA) in 75.4% of the cases, left VA in 51.4% of the cases, left ICA in 69.1% of the cases. Crossover to femoral access was required in 82 (6.4%) patients (most common cause was inability to reach the target vessel in 13 patients). None of the included patients had major complication related to the access site. Minor complications related to access site were seen in 30 (2.4%) patients. Of those, 11 patients had forearm hematoma, 8 had mild-moderate vasospasm, 6 had forearm pain, and 5 had oozing from the access site.
Conclusion:
In this early stage of transforming to radial-first approach for neurointerventions, TRA was reasonably safe with relatively low complication rate for both diagnostic and interventional procedures. Wide range of procedures were completed successfully using TRA.