The radial artery is preferred for securing arterial blood and for cannulation to provide continuous blood pressure (BP) monitoring and arterial blood sampling. If the radial artery cannot be cannulated, the femoral artery offers a viable alternative.
Arterial line placement can be performed via multiple methods. The choice of methods is determined by location, operator preference, and available equipment. The most commonly used methods are the following:[22]
Catheter over needle
Catheter over wire (including direct Seldinger and modified Seldinger techniques)
Arterial cutdown for arterial access is not recommended. It should be considered a last resort, to be performed only by physicians with sufficient training and skill to perform the procedure and manage complications. Discussion of cutdown technique is beyond the scope of this article.
For radial artery cannulation, either the catheter-over-needle technique or the catheter-over-wire technique may be used. The latter is more common in adults and larger children; the former is more common in infants and neonates. As a last resort, a surgical cutdown can be performed for cannulation of the radial artery.
For femoral artery cannulation, the catheter-over-wire technique is preferred. The puncture site for the femoral artery should be below the inguinal ligament to allow control of bleeding and prevention of bleeding into the pelvis. The catheter-over-needle technique can also be used for femoral artery cannulation, either alone or in combination with an over-the-wire technique (ie, Seldinger) if a longer indwelling catheter is desired.
With either the catheter-over-needle approach or the catheter-over-wire approach, meticulous attention must be paid to preparing the cannulation site with chlorhexidine to minimize the risk of infection and to firmly securing the final intra-arterial catheter with sutures.[3, 23, 24]
As with central venous line placement, real-time ultrasonographic guidance can decrease the number of attempts and amount of time required to place an arterial line.[25, 26, 22]