Location of femoral artery puncture site and the risk of postcatheterization pseudoaneurysm formation.

Iatrogenic causes constitute increasingly frequent sources of pseudoaneurysms due to endovascular interventions. However, till now, all analyses focused on evaluating different risk factors contributing to the development of pseudoaneurysm, overlooking the issue of localization of femoral puncture. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of position of femoral artery puncture on the risk of pseudoaneurysm formation. 116 patients were evaluated for the site of catheter insertion into femoral arteries. Another group of 273 patients, suspected of vascular complications after endovascular procedures, were diagnosed with pseudoaneurysms which were analyzed for the location of arterial wall disruption. Puncture sites of groin arteries, i.e. EIA (2.7%), CFA (77.5%), SFA and DFA (19.8%), correlated with pseudoaneurysm location reaching 7.6% (EIA), 54.3% (CFA) and 38.1% (SFA, DFA). Type of procedure influenced these values. Duplex ultrasound mapping of CFA before the endovascular intervention eliminated discrepancies between the incidence of pseudoaneurysm formation and the frequency of arterial puncture in the selected vascular segments. Pseudoaneurysms formed in 4.5% of patients undergoing traditional palpation-guided vessel cannulation and in 2.6% of patients after ultrasound-guided puncture of the femoral artery. Upon further analysis, we concluded that the likelihood of the development of pseudoaneurysm depends on the artery punctured in the groin. This risk increases dramatically for external iliac artery, superficial and deep femoral arteries. A simple means of prevention of this dangerous complication of femoral artery puncture is duplex ultrasound mapping of the groin arteries.