Transbrachial fine-needle arteriography with special focus on haemodialysis shunt imaging

Retrospective analysis of the complication rate of transbrachial fine-needle arteriography was made to determine whether the advantages of arterial angiograms over venous fistulograms outweigh the possible complications. We included 236 patients who had undergone 454 arterial fine-needle punctures with a 22-gauge cannula in the cubital fossa. Spasm as the only reliably detectable early complication of this retrospective study occurred with a frequency of 1.9% in dialysis patients. The only late and severe complication we found in reviewing 217 arterial follow-up angiograms was one aneurysm. We consider arterial angiogram, using the fine-needle puncture technique, as a safe method for angiographic control of haemodialysis shunts. We attribute the low complication rate of less than 0.5% to the introduction of this technique.