critical care medicine
How To Do Femoral Artery Cannulation, Ultrasound Guided
Complications of Femoral Artery Cannulation, US Guided
Complications include Hematoma Infection Damage to the artery Thrombosis (due to the catheter itself) Embolism (cholesterol) during guide-wire insertion Ischemia Arterial puncture Nerve damage Air embolism (eg, occurring during flushing of catheters) Catheter misplacement Bladder or bowel perforation To reduce the risk of catheter sepsis, femoral artery catheters should be removed as soon as they are no longer needed. The incidence of thrombosis and distal ischemia is much lower than that for radial arterial catheterization. Rare complications include limb ischemia and necrosis, pseudoaneurysm, and arteriovenous fistula. Guidewire, catheter, or cholesterol embolism also rarely occurs. 