Reassessments of the postprocedure care for transfemoral angiography in major large hospitals in Taiwan

For the purpose to realize the status of the postprocedure care for transfemoral angiography in Taiwan region and look for the way of improvement, we carried out a survey of the medical orders of postprocedure care in 8 medical centers and 16 regional hospitals. The average timing of complete stretching the leg of puncture side is 12.25 hours in medical centers and 7.75 hours in regional hospitals; the average timing of complete bedrest is 12.25 hours in medical centers and 11.25 hours in regional hospitals; the average timing of compressing the puncture site with sandbag is 6.75 hours in medical centers and 5.25 hours in regional hospitals. These timings indicated that the patients received angiographic study in medical centers had more activity restriction than in regional hospitals. Therefore, the postprocedure nursing care for these patients is longer in medical centers as well. According to the concepts and experiences of outpatient angiography in America and Europe, the postprocedure care for transfemoral angiography usually require only 4 hours of bedrest and complete stretching the leg of puncture side. It is reasonable to reduce these timings so as to reduce the inconvenience of patients and the nursing load for these patients.