Finger exercise could reduce painfulness and radial artery complications related to coronary artery angiography.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate if applying a finger exercise during trans-radial coronary artery angiography (CAG) could help to reduce a patient's painfulness and evaluate its protective effects against radial artery complications.

METHODS: This is a prospective, controlled, single-center trial. Overall, 390 patients who underwent coronary angiography through radial path in our hospital during 2022 were randomized 1 : 1 to the following two groups: test group: finger exercise in addition to routine perioperative care; control group: routine care. The success rate of radial puncture, the incidence of procedural radial artery dissection (RAD) and radial artery spasm (RAS), change of wrist circumference, pain degree related to the operation, occurrence of access site hemorrhagic complications, hemostasis time and postprocedure occurrence of radial artery occlusion (RAO) before discharge were recorded and compared between two groups.

RESULTS: Compared to the control group, the test group had a higher success rate of radial puncture, lower incidence of RAS, RAD and RAO, slighter swelling of wrist and patients who felt less pain in the test group. There was no difference in prolonged hemostasis time or hemorrhagic complications between the two groups.

CONCLUSION: Finger exercise could help to make a patient more comfortable and reduce radial artery complications related to CAG.