Proximal vs Distal Radial Artery Cannulation

After the patients are admitted to the operating room, routine monitoring (electrocardiography, noninvasive blood pressure and peripheral oxygen saturation) will be performed. After appropriate vascular access is provided to the patients, the induction phase of general anesthesia will begin. Anesthesia induction will be left to the choice of the primary anesthesiologist and no protocol will be followed. In case of >25% drop in blood pressure, 0.1 mcg/kg noradrenaline will be administered intravenously. After the appropriate position is given to the arm of the patient to be treated, radial artery cannulation will be performed with USG obeying asepsis rules. Patients will be divided into 2 groups by closed envelope method. The first group will be the patients who will be cannulated at the level of the distal radius (styloid process) and the second group will be the patients who will be cannulated proximally by measuring 5 cm from the styloid process. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients will be recorded. Catheterization success rates, procedure duration, number of interventions, vessel diameter, hematoma at the site of intervention on the 1st postoperative day, circulatory disturbance will be examined.

Inclusion criteria

• Elective surgery
• American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) physical status I-III

Exclusion criteria

• Emergency surgery
• ASA IV or above
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Vasopressor use
• Anatomical abnormality at the cannulation site
• Infection at the cannulation site
• Coagulation defect