Safety and efficacy of suture‐mediated closure after percutaneous coronary interventions

Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) performed with concomitant use of heparin and platelet inhibitors are safe procedures with reported vascular complication rates of approximately 6.1%. EPILOG investigators demonstrated that utilizing a low-dose heparin regimen with abciximab, along with early sheath removal, vascular access-related bleeding was significantly lower than that reported in EPIC. Recently, a suture-mediated closure (SMC) device has been reported to be safe, appears effective, and may improve patient comfort by allowing early ambulation. We conducted a retrospective analysis (January 1999 to March 2000) of complication frequencies among PCI patients who underwent SMC and those who had manual compression (non-SMC). Furthermore, we compared the overall rates of complications to patients who underwent PCI prior to the introduction of SMC (1995-1998). When comparing the current cohort to the historical cohort, there was a significant decrease in the number of retroperitoneal bleeds (0.3% vs. 0.9%; P = 0.003), hematomas (5% vs. 9%; P < 0.001), pseudoaneurysms (1.2% vs. 2.7%; P < 0.001), and need for vascular surgery (0.9% vs. 2.8%; P < 0.001). There was no difference in the number of arterio-venous fistulas and a slight increase in transfusion needs (12% vs. 10%; P = 0.03). Within the current cohort, there was no difference in the vascular complications between SMC and non-SMC PCI patients, although there were lower rates of pseudoaneurysms (0.5% vs. 1.8%; P = 0.02) and transfusion requirements (72/880 vs. 132/874; P < 0.001). These results suggest that the complication rates for SMC are not different and may be lower when compared to non-SMC patients after PCI. At our institution, the practice of early sheath removal and less aggressive heparin dosing has led to a decrease in vascular complication rates and a 66% reduction in vascular surgeries on post-PCI patients. Because of the limitations of retrospective analyses, further studies will be necessary to confirm these findings.