Transradial Approach to Swine Endovascular Experiments: A Preclinical Report

Transradial access (TRA) is the preferred site of access by interventional cardiologists, offering lower complication rates, shorter hospital stays, and higher patient satisfaction than transfemoral access. These features inspired neuro-interventionalists to adopt this approach. However, TRA has not yet gained widespread adoption in neuro-interventional procedures, potentially due to a lack of familiarity with the procedure and the devices tailored for TRA. Swine, with their vascular system resembling that of humans, present an ideal model for conducting endovascular studies. Here, we share our experience with TRA in swine that could serve to train neuro-interventionalists and test transradial catheters and devices before application in human subjects. Standard clinical practices, similar to those used for humans, were adopted during the procedures. In our experiments, the ultrasound-guided TRA was obtained successfully in three swine, and distal carotid vasculatures were accessed without complications.