Complications of outpatient transbrachial intraarterial digital subtraction angiography. Work in progress.

To assess the safety of nonselective intraarterial digital subtraction angiography (DSA) performed from a brachial artery approach, the complications of 660 consecutive examinations, most of which (greater than 95%) were performed on outpatients, were studied. Contrast material injections into the aorta were made through a 4-F multiple side-hole pigtail catheter inserted percutaneously from the brachial artery. Two brachial artery complications severe enough to require surgery occurred (one hematoma and one arterial laceration/thrombosis), for a rate of 0.3%. No cerebrovascular complications were encountered. Delayed and minor complications were retrospectively studied in 137 patients; they included local arm pain in 24 patients (17.5%), transient paresthesia in ten (7.3%), ecchymosis in 69 (50.4%), and hematoma in 13 (9.5%). The transbrachial approach to nonselective intraarterial DSA is a safe alternative to the femoral artery approach.