Intractable spasm in a hypoplastic brachioradial artery during coronary angiography. A last chance before surgery

Abstract

For the past several years coronary angiography through radial artery has been preferred vascular access over femoral artery due to the favorable outcomes. However radial access has also rare drawbacks. One of the main complications of radial approach is vascular spasm. Although radial spasm can easily be resolved with various intervention, rarely it may be intractable in particular anatomic variations. These patients might be needed advanced treatment methods to overcome vasospasm. In this paper we report an intractable spasm in a hypoplastic radial artery during angiography which could only be resolved by neuraxial blockage after failure of conventional treatments.