Background:
Complaints of patients undergoing invasive per-cutaneous procedures are a frequent finding. Our objective was to assess the discomfort of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization using femoral or radial approach.
Methods:
Cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic sample of adults undergoing catheterization. Data were collected through a questionnaire.
Results:
We included 228 patients, 205 who underwent the procedure via the femoral approach and 23 by the radial approach. A 6 F arterial sheath was used in all patients. Mean age was 60.0 ± 11.5 years and most of them were male (50.4%). The main complaints were lumbar pain in 65.8% and malaise in 32.0% of the cases. In a scale of 0 to 10, the average value assigned for lumbar pain intensity was 5.0 ± 4.2 and 1.5 ± 2.7 for pain at the puncture site. Patients who used the radial approach reported having more pain at the puncture site than patients who used the femoral access (26.8% vs. 52.2%; p = 0.01). However, patients who used the femoral approach most often reported lumbar pain (69.8% vs. 30.4%; p < 0.01) and malaise (34.6% vs. 8.7%; p = 0.01).
Conclusions:
The predominant discomfort after femoral puncture was lumbar pain and in patients undergoing radial puncture it was pain at the access site. Our findings corroborate the recommendations for a clinical practice that promotes better patient care, including comfort measures, such as the use of cushions, changes in body position, supervised ambulation and the creation of a welcoming environment.
Cardiac catheterization; Radial artery; Femoral artery; Pain; Nursing care