Feasibility of Outpatient Care After Manual Compression in Patients Treated for Peripheral Arterial Disease by Endovascular Technique With 5F Sheath Femoral Approach

The reference management strategies for patients treated for peripheral arterial disease by endovascular technique are conventional hospitalization with manual compression and discharge after at least one over-night observation and outpatient hospitalization with the use of an arterial closure device. There are currently no official guidelines for guiding the patient towards one or other of these types of care. Indeed, outpatient management of artery disease is implemented in only a few centers in France. Several studies have shown that outpatient care is perfectly safe for patients. Our experiment at the Nantes University Hospital demonstrates also the reliability and safety of this care through the use of closure systems as shown by Albert. Now, it seems judicious to develop and improve this care since the use of smaller diameter devices would tend to render manual compression sufficient.

The method used is based on our previous protocols, routine practice and evaluation. First of all, patients eligible for same-day discharge are first selected according to SFAR (Société Française d'Anesthésie Réanimation - French Society for Anesthesia and Resuscitation) criteria for outpatients. Patients failing to meet these criteria are directed towards conventional hospitalization.

For outpatients, the patients are hospitalized in a specific unit hosting outpatients of different medico-surgical specialties. The paramedical team checks the prerequisites and the preoperative assessment. The use of a common femoral approach with 5F sheath is required. According to patients' needs, femoral anterograde or retrograde puncture are performed under duplex scan guidance. Aortoiliac and infrainguinal occlusive lesions are indifferently treated but the endovascular treatment must be compatible with the use of a stent or a drug coating balloon 5F sheath and 0.035 compatible..

The procedure should be finished 5h prior the outpatients unit closing to allow 5h follow-up. The intervention proceeded after an intravenous bolus of heparin. Anesthesia, antiplatelet regimen were let at the discretion of the interventionnalist. End-of-procedure hemostasis shall be implemented by the operator by manual compression for at least 10 minutes, potentially extended until complete hemostasis is achieved. A pressure pad shall be applied just after the end of manual compression.

The patient's general and local condition shall be monitored in the recovery room. If there are no local or general complications, the patient shall return to the ambulatory unit. In the unit, at H4, the compressive dressing is removed, patient is place in half-sitting position and without any complications, the ability to be discharged will be evaluated. The day after the operation, the patient is contacted by the ambulatory unit according with HAS and SFAR recommandations for a medical checkpoint. All of this will be conducted under medical and paramedical supervision. In the event of femoral puncture site active bleeding at any stage during care, the patient's surgeon will be notified and an additional manual compression will be applied if necessary. There are no specific guidelines concerning treatment with platelet aggregation inhibitors, whose choice will be left to the operator's discretion. In all cases, the treatments will be recorded.