Procedural outcomes of repeated transradial coronary procedure

We evaluated the changes in radial arterial diameter and the procedural outcomes of repeated transradial procedures through the same radial artery in 117 cases, No significant differences were found in the mean diameter of the radial artery between preprocedure and 1 day after procedure on initial and repeated procedures. However, the mean radial arterial diameter was significantly decreased from 2.63 ± 0.35 to 2.51 ± 0.29 mm during follow-up after the initial procedure (P = 0.01). There was no significant difference in the vascular access times of the initial and repeated procedures (2.9 ± 3.1 vs. 3.3 ± 3.6 min; P = 0.08), and procedural success of repeated procedure was similar to those of the initial procedure. However, the incidence of radial arterial occlusion was higher for repeated procedures (2.6% vs. 0%; P = 0.01). We conclude that the repeated use of the radial artery is feasible in most patients with a high procedural success rate and low vascular complications.