Predictors of common femoral artery access site complications in patients on oral anticoagulants and undergoing a coronary procedure

Background: It is unclear whether patients on oral anticoagulants (OAC) undergoing a procedure using common femoral artery access have higher adverse events when compared to patients who are not anticoagulated at the time of the procedure. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data from consecutive patients who underwent a cardiac procedure at a tertiary medical center. Patients were considered (group A) fully or partially anticoagulated if they had an international normalized ratio (INR) ≥1.6 on the day of the procedure or were on warfarin or new OAC within 48 h and 24 h of the procedure, respectively. The nonanticoagulated group (group B) had an INR <1.6 or had stopped their warfarin and new OAC >48 h and >24 h preprocedure, respectively. The index primary end point of the study was defined as the composite end point of major bleeding, vascular complications, or cardiovascular-related death during index hospitalization. The 30-day primary end point was defined as the occurrence of the index primary end point and up to 30 days postprocedure. Results: A total of 779 patients were included in this study. Of these patients, 27 (3.5%) patients were in group A. The index primary end point was met in 11/779 (1.4%) patients. The 30-day primary composite end point was met in 18/779 (2.3%) patients. There was no difference in the primary end point at index between group A (1/27 [3.7%]) and group B (10/752 [1.3%]; P =0.3155) and no difference in the 30-day primary composite end point between group A (2/27 [7.4%]) and group B (16/752 [2.1%]; P =0.1313). Multivariable analysis showed that a low creatinine clearance (odds ratio [OR] =0.56; P =0.0200) and underweight patients (<60 kg; OR =3.94; P =0.0300) were independent predictors of the 30-day primary composite end point but not oral anticoagulation ( P =0.1500). Conclusion: Patients on OAC did not have higher 30-day major adverse events than those who were not anticoagulated at index procedure.