Coronary angioplasty: A crucial and updated review

Abstract

In today’s world, most deaths are attributable to communicable and non-communicable diseases, 32 million and just over half of these, 16.7 million are as a result of CHD. More than one third of these deaths occur in the middle-aged adults. In developed countries heart disease is the first cause of death for adult men and women. CAD appears to be more prominent among working classes. The incidence of CAD in young adults is increasing mainly due to tobacco consumption, lack of physical activity, sedentary lifestyle and obesity. Traditional coronary angiography and angioplasty are usually performed via femoral approach. Though this route provides an easier vascular access, it is associated with a smaller but potentially serious incidence of vascular complications at the puncture site that may result in significant groin hematoma, blood transfusion or require surgical repair. A useful and safe alternative approach is through the trans-radial access. This route has a very low rate of vascular complications and also allows early mobilization of patients. Though this approach is less commonly used all over the world, recently the usage of this technique has improved. Currently, we as a team of Heart Care Clinic are performing more than 90 percent of the procedure via the trans-radial route. We have performed thousands of angiographies and angioplasties by this route in past several years. Here we performed an analysis of our experience with trans-radial angiography and angioplasty and demonstrating this to be a safe and effective technique suitable for most of the patients.