Transradial-approach for cardiovascular interventions.

Transradial approach for cardiovascular interventions has some important advantages over femoral approach, mainly related to complications at the insertion site. It allows quicker mobility of patients and because of lower incidence of major adverse events the hospitalization is shorter. In this review article authors describe anatomical features of arteries of the upper extremity affecting intervention success. Rare complications while introducing wires and catheters and the ways of their prevention and treatment are listed. The main part of this article is dedicated to the description of the techniques of radial approach. Cases where radial approach is not appropriate, ways of radial artery protection and some tips and tricks for handling catheters are mentioned. Finally, our own experience with radial approach for cardiovascular interventions is presented.