Ultrasound-Guided Radial Artery Cannulation Technique in Elderly Patients Undergoing Non-cardiac Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial

In elderly patients, radial arterial cannulation is challenging and time-consuming. With ultrasound guidance, the success rate of this procedure can be increased, the associated complications can be reduced, and the procedure can be completed more quickly. A comparison was made between ultrasound-guided radial artery cannulation and traditional palpation techniques in elderly patients. In this randomized controlled trial, ninety elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery were randomly divided into ultrasound-guided and palpation groups and then had arterial cannulation using either method by anesthesia residents. In this study, the primary outcomes were the success rate of cannulation at the first attempt, the overall success rate, and the time necessary to perform cannulation, and the secondary outcome was the incidence of cannulation-related complications. Also, eighty-nine elderly patients were analyzed in the present study. It was found that the ultrasound-guided group (84.09%) had a significantly higher first-attempt success rate than the palpation group (55.5%, P = 0.003). The ultrasound-guided group (45.7 ± 11.0s) had a considerably shorter cannulation time than the palpation group (54.2 ± 16.2s, P = 0.000). Furthermore, in the ultrasound-guided group, fewer attempts were made than in the palpation group. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups when it came to overall success rates and cannulation-related complications. Ultrasound-guided arterial cannulation is preferred for elderly patients compared to traditional palpation, as it achieves a higher success rate of cannulation and has fewer complications.