Feasibility of distal radial access for carotid interventions: the RADCAR-DISTAL pilot study

Introduction

Increased procedural safety and improved patient comfort are the two key advantages of the transradial approach (TRA) over traditional femoral access (FA)1, which has led to its growing popularity2,3. While the favourable safety profile of the TRA is reflected in the high-level recommendations for its use in cardiology, the relatively high rate of radial artery occlusions (RAO) remains an important concern4. The distal transradial approach (DTRA) was developed to address the issue of RAO without compromising efficacy or patient comfort.

Encouraged by the initial data published on the DTRA for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI)5, we decided ...