Outpatient arteriography: its safety and cost effectiveness.

An 11-year experience with 2,029 outpatient arteriograms in a 500-bed community hospital with active vascular and cardiovascular services is reported. During this period 3,864 inpatient arteriograms were also obtained. The major complication rate has been lower for the outpatient procedures than for the inpatient procedures, and no malpractice claims have been made as a result of outpatient arteriography. There were considerable cost savings with the outpatient arteriography. Since conventional arteriography can be done safely and economically on an outpatient basis, and provides images of superior quality, it is considered highly competitive with digital subtraction angiography.