Prevalence of post-procedural pain and associated factors experienced after transradial coronary angiography

Introduction: Coronary angiography is a principle diagnostic and therapeutic procedure in modern cardiology practice. The transradial access for cardiac catheterization has overtaken the transfemoral approach because of many advantages. However, some patients suffer radial pain after the procedure. Unfortunately, this complication has been poorly evaluated in previous studies. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of radial pain after transradial coronary angiography and investigate factors that influence post-procedural pain. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which a total of 100 consecutive patients who underwent elective transradial coronary angiography ± percutaneous coronary intervention between January 2015–2016 were evaluated. The patients were asked about presence of disturbing pain in the forearm especially wrist region after the procedure. Verbal rating scale was used to evaluate pain assessment. The patients were divided as early pain group (two hours after the procedure) and prolonged pain group (one month after the procedure) and analysis was performed. Results: A total of 55 patients suffered from pain in the early phase (after two hours), and 26 of patients had prolonged pain at one month after the radial intervention. Independent pain predictors in the early pain group were male operator (p = 0.004, OR = 3.386, 95% CI: 1.484–7.725) and experience of operator (OR = 4.147, 95% CI: 1.637–10.506, p = 0.003). On the other hand, the younger age of patients (OR = 0.955, 95% CI: 0.915–0.966, p = 0.032) and experience of operator (OR = 3.947, 95% CI: 1.547–10.047, p = 0.004) were the independent predictors of prolonged radial pain. Conclusion: Pain after radial coronary angiography is not uncommon. Experience, operator gender, and age of the patients were independent predictors of pain after transradial coronary angiography