With the increasing use of contrast agents for both diagnostic and interventional procedures, contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) has become an important medical concern. It is estimated that CI-AKI is the third most common cause of hospital-acquired renal failure and has significant prognostic implications for patients outcomes.1 The incidence of CI-AKI varies depending on the definitions and cut-off values used.
Many experts would agree that the concept of looking at vessel architecture from the inside using intracoronary probes, instead of simply relying on the angiographic vessel cast, is an elegant way to practise interventional cardiology in order to decide whether to treat a coronary artery and to guide coronary intervention. The historical development of stents neatly exemplifies this notion: the introduction of stents in clinical practice was initially burdened by an unacceptably high incidence of subacute thrombosis.
Manual compression has been the gold standard for obtaining haemostasis at the femoral artery access site since being introduced in conjunction with the Seldinger technique in the 1950s.1 However, the limitations of manual compression, including patient discomfort, delayed haemostasis and ambulation and bleeding at the access site despite satisfactory initial haemostasis, have spurred the development of alternative closure methodologies.