Background: The radial artery became preferable access for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). The latest European Society of Cardiology guidelines strongly recommended transradial access in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Though, in a significant portion of the coronary artery, invasive procedure crossover to femoral is necessary.
Aims: This study aimed to determine the ratio, risk factors, and periprocedural outcomes of crossover from radial to femoral access during PCI in a contemporary STEMI registry.
Methods: Based on data from the Polish registry ORPKI, we analyzed 90245 patients with a diagnosis of STEMI that were intended to be treated invasively via transradial access between 2014 and 2019.
Results: In 1484 (1.6 %) individuals, a switch to femoral access was necessary during the procedure. The most important independent predictors of vascular crossover were female sex, previous coronary artery bypass graft, class 3 and 4 of the Killip scale, left main disease, as well as any complications during coronary angiography. In that cohort, the risk of bleeding at the puncture site was over 20-fold higher. Major disparities in periprocedural outcomes (death during procedure, cardiac arrest during PCI, Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) after PCI, and no-reflow) between these groups resulted from disparities in initial characteristics, and they were not associated with crossover itself.
Conclusions: Even though the risk of crossover to femoral is currently low, it appears to be indispensable to sustain operators' experience both in radial and femoral approaches to achieve the best outcomes in these patients.
Keywords: PCI; STEMI; crossover; transradial access.