Sonographically guided antegrade common femoral artery access.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of sonographically guided antegrade common femoral artery puncture and superficial femoral artery access.

METHODS: Fifty antegrade common femoral artery punctures and superficial femoral artery access procedures were performed under sonographic guidance alone in 30 consecutive patients (24 male and 6 female; mean age, 55.1 +/- 25.7 years; range, 13-85 years). The indications were (1) insertion of a vascular sheath for balloon angioplasty in 42 attempts (24 patients with lower leg ischemia) and (2) insertion of an angiographic catheter for 1-shot intra-arterial chemoinfusion therapy in 8 attempts (6 patients with distal femoral osteosarcomas).

RESULTS: Technical success was achieved in 28 of 30 patients or 48 (96%) of 50 procedures (95% confidence interval, 80.39-98.32). The average procedure time +/- SD (excluding the failures) was 3 +/- 1 minutes (range, 2-6 minutes). In the 2 failures (2 [4%] of 50) in which common femoral artery punctures were accomplished, further superficial femoral artery cannulations were completed under fluoroscopic road map angiographic guidance. A small groin hematoma was noted in 1 patient. No arteriovenous fistula or pseudoaneurysm was encountered.

CONCLUSIONS: Sonographically guided antegrade common femoral artery puncture and selective cannulation of the superficial femoral artery are feasible and safe. They may be used as adjunctive modalities in difficult cases of common femoral artery access.