Common femoral artery access techniques: a review

The increasing burden of coronary artery disease has resulted in more percutaneous coronary artery interventions. The common femoral artery remains the most widely accepted site for percutaneous coronary artery access. Local access site, vascular complications remain a considerable source of morbidity during common femoral arterial puncture. This has prompted angiographers, over the years, to define various reliable landmarks and techniques to access the common femoral artery, in an attempt to minimize and avoid complications. In this discourse, we discuss the various techniques of obtaining common femoral arterial access, with their relative benefits and disadvantages. The literature supporting the various palpatory or radiographic landmark-guided methods is reviewed. There are limited data on the superiority of any individual method. J Cardiovasc Med 10:517-522 (C) 2009 Italian Federation of Cardiology.