[Feasibility study of arterial pressure measurement by snuff pot artery puncture]

To explore the feasibility of snuff pot arterial pressure measurement for patients undergoing routine elective surgery during anesthesia.

A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted. Patients undergoing elective surgery admitted to the Handan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from June 1, 2020 to June 1, 2022 were enrolled. Patients who needed arterial pressure measurement for hemodynamic monitoring were randomly divided into routine radial artery puncture group and snuff pot artery puncture group with their informed consent. The patients in the routine radial artery puncture group were placed a catheter at the styloid process of the patient's radius to measure pressure. In the snuff pot artery puncture group, the snuff pot artery, that was, the radial fossa on the back of the hand (snuff box), was selected to conduct the snuff pot artery puncture and tube placement for pressure measurement. The indwelling time of arterial puncture catheter, arterial blood pressure, and complications of puncture catheterization of patients in the two groups were observed. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to screen the relevant factors that affect the outcome of arterial catheterization.

Finally, a total of 252 patients were enrolled, of which 130 patients received routine radial artery puncture and 122 patients received snuff pot artery puncture. There was no statistically significant difference in general information such as gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and surgical type of patients between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the indwelling time of artery puncture catheter between the routine radial artery puncture group and the snuff pot artery puncture group (minutes: 3.4±0.3 vs. 3.6±0.3, P > 0.05). The systolic blood pressure (SBP) and the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) measured in the snuff pot artery puncture group were significantly higher than those in the conventional radial artery puncture group [SBP (mmHg, 1 mmHg ≈ 0.133 kPa): 162.3±14.3 vs. 156.6±12.5, DBP (mmHg): 85.3±12.6 vs. 82.9±11.3, both P < 0.05]. There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of complications such as arterial spasm, arterial occlusion, and pseudoaneurysm formation between the two groups. However, the incidence of hematoma formation in the snuff pot artery puncture group was significantly lower than that in the conventional radial artery puncture group (2.5% vs. 4.6%, P < 0.05). Based on the difficulty of arterial puncture, multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that gender [odds ratio (OR) = 0.643, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.525-0.967], age (OR = 2.481, 95%CI was 1.442-4.268) and BMI (OR = 0.786, 95%CI was 0.570-0.825) were related factors that affect the outcome of arterial catheterization during anesthesia in patients undergoing elective surgery (all P < 0.05).

Catheterization through the snuff pot artery can be a new and feasible alternative to conventional arterial pressure measurement.