Iatrogenic brachial artery injuries.

During a 7-year period approximately 700 left heart cardiac catheterizations were carried out via open brachial arteriotomy. Of these, 25 patients with a missing or weak radial pulse after catheterization were referred for operation. Despite minimal early ischaemic symptoms and signs, all 25 patients had a complete occlusion of the brachial artery at the site of the arteriotomy. Commonest causes for occlusion were circumferential intimal tears or excessive suturing. Technical details of the repair of the damaged artery debridement, venous patch graft, and no anticoagulation after operation werefound to be important and led to long-term patency in i6 of the I7 'early'