[The Efficacy of Ultrasound-guided Radial Artery Catheterization.]

The goal of this study was to evaluate in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) whether ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterization decreased procedural time and number of attempts compared with the traditional palpation technique.

Ultrasonography was evaluated for arte- rial catheterization after the traditional palpation tech- nique was unsuccessful in 480 seconds in 10 patients with PAD. The vascular access was performed by a single anesthesiologist. The successful catheterization time and the number of attempts were recorded. We also measured the diameter of the radial artery, the skin-to-artery distance, and the distance between the linear probe and puncture site.

The mean overall time per patient for catheter insertion was 220.0?112.6 sec in the ultra- sound group vs. 480 sec in the palpation group (P= 0.0029). The mean number of attempts was 1.30?0.48 in the ultrasound group vs. 4.50?0.53 in the palpation group (P = 0.0024). All catheterizations were success- ful, and no failure was encountered in the ultrasound group.

Ultrasound-guided radial artery cath- eterization took less time to establish the arterial line, and it reduced the number of attempts when com- pared with the palpation technique.