Rare case of radial artery pseudoaneurysm protruding through skin after a single arterial puncture for blood-gas analysis

Dimitrios Giotis 1, *, Vasileios Panagiotopoulos 1, Christos Konstantinidis 1, Paraskevi Vravoritou 1, Stefania N. Karampina 2, Vasiliki Telaki 2, Christos Kotsias 1, Varvara-Sylvana Kardakari 1, Dimitrios Vardakas 1 and Sotiris Plakoutsis 1

1 Orthopaedic Department, General Hospital of Ioannina “G. Hatzikosta”, Ioannina, Greece.
2 Cardiology Department, General Hospital of Ioannina “G. Hatzikosta”, Ioannina, Greece.
 
Review
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2021, 02(02), 105–109.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2021.2.2.0059
Publication history: 
Received on 27 March 2021; revised on 30 April 2021; accepted on 03 May 2021
 
Abstract: 
The pseudoaneurysm of the radial artery is an infrequent complication mainly after iatrogenic procedures, with an increased incidence over the last years. The aim of the current study was to present a rare case of a radial artery pseudoaneurysm that projected through the skin after a single arterial puncture for blood-gas analysis. A 79-year-old man, with a history of atrial fibrillation and coronary heart disease on anticoagulants, was admitted to the cardiological intermediate care unit, with pulmonary oedema due to heart failure deregulation. On the next day, his left radial artery was punctured for blood-gas analysis. No other catheterization of the vessel was executed in the following days. Six days later a pulsatile, palpable mass on the skin surface, over the site of puncture, was recognized. Subsequently a Doppler ultrasound that was performed, confirmed the diagnosis of pseudoaneurysm. The pseudoaneurysm was surgically removed under general anesthesia. The patient was hospitalized for four days for trauma monitoring and intravenous antibiotics and afterwards he was discharged from the Hospital. Three months postoperatively, no sign of recurrence was observed. The pseudoaneurysm of the radial artery is an uncommon complication that might occur even after simple iatrogenic procedures, like after a direct arterial puncture for blood-gas analysis. Therefore, specialists should always be aware of this complication in similar cases.
 
Keywords: 
Pseudoaneurysm; Radial artery; Blood-gas analysis; Complication; Iatrogenic procedures.
 
Full text article in PDF: 
 
Copyright information: 

Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0