Is it Worthy Enough to Revascularize Chronically Occluded Coronaries?

Chronic total occlusions (CTOs) represent the "final frontier" of coronary interventions with the lowest procedural success rates and the most common reason for incomplete revascularization and referral to coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). CTO lesions are not an infrequent finding during coronary angiography. They are often responsible for enhancing the complexity of the coronary disease burden thereby affecting the final interventional decision in the process.

Simultaneous radio-ulnar cannulation: shifting gears from 'feasibility' to 'applicability'.

Conventionally, routes of vascular access commonly include femoral and radial arteries with brachial, ulnar and subclavian arteries being rarely used for coronary interventions. Non-femoral arterial access is being increasingly preferred to minimise groin puncture site complications, prolonged immobilization and duration of hospital stay. However, radial artery cannulation is also fraught with fears of tortuosity, loops, vascular spasm, perforation, pseudoaneurysm formation, arm hematoma and arterial occlusion.