When a patient needs angioplasty , the standard access point used by physicians has been the femoral artery in the groin. But in a growing number of cases, U.S. cardiologists are using the radial artery, in the wrist, for the procedure. Various studies have shown that radial angioplasty has several benefits over femoral, including much lower risk and increased patient comfort.

“It’s fairly uncommon but the numbers will probably go up as doctors get more comfortable with it,” says Dr. Christopher Johnson , an invasive cardiologist at Kitsap Cardiology Consultants.

The procedure is used in Europe and Japan in as many as half the cases , according to medical sources. The main problem with it in the United States, Johnson says, is training — most cardiologists have been trained to perform femoral angioplasty during their fellowships. “It has a steep learning curve but all cardiologists could likely do it,” he says.

The radial artery was reportedly first used for diagnostic purposes by a French-Canadian doctor in the late ’80s. By 1992, an Amsterdam group of physicians began exploring the use of the wrist artery for interventional procedures. One challenge with the radial artery is that it’s narrower than the one in the groin, and the technology and methods used for it were cumbersome.

As an example, Johnson says when he learned radial angioplasty, it was done on the left arm, as the arm essentially floated in the air. He has since discovered a better way of doing it, through the right side, which makes the procedures much faster.

Other advances — such as kits that start out with very small needles and wires and medicine cocktails to prevent spasming — are helping improve the procedure. From the patient’s standpoint, the radial approach means being able to get up and move around immediately after the procedure, and it’s easier to stop bleeding because it can be spotted right away. “Patients like it better and it’s more comfortable for them,” Johnson says.

Johnson points out that studies show the complication rate for radial angioplasty is much smaller; however, so is the catherization success rate. “For diagnostic purposes, it’s pretty easy to use, once you gain access, slowly and meticulously, when working up the arm,” he says, but for cases like heart attacks when fast access is needed, using the groin artery is more efficient.

He says one of the reasons the procedure may become more common is due to research in recent years that shows complications from bleeding from femoral catherization could be a lot more dangerous than previously thought.

“As the technique becomes more known, more people will use it,” he says.