Management of the upper extremity with absent pulses after cardiac catheterization

Thirty-one patients had a delayed loss of brachial artery and radial artery pulse after cardiac catheterization; eleven of the patients had early embolectomy or a vein patch graft and 82% of these had immediate restoration of pulse and remained asymptomatic. Early surgery failed in two patients, requiring late vein bypass grafting for claudication. Twenty patients did not have early surgery, eleven (55%) remaining asymptomatic and nine (45%) developing ischemic symptoms. Five of these nine patients (25%) required late vein bypass grafting for severe claudication. Of the fifteen patients who lost their pulse and did not undergo surgery, the average Doppler forearm pressure immediately following the occlusion was 50 mm Hg (pressure index=0.46). The average Doppler pressure measured at the time of follow-up was 80 mm Hg (pressure index = 0.61). Early local surgery is highly successful in patients who lose their radial artery pulse after cardiac catheterization. Conservative nonoperative therapy may be successful but often results in late ischemic symptoms that may require late vein bypass grafting.