Safety of femoral closure devices after percutaneous coronary interventions in the era of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa platelet blockade

Femoral closure devices have been developed to reduce patient discomfort an d minimize femoral complications. Angio-Seal (St. Jude Medical, Minnetonka. Minnesota), which causes hemostasis by deploying a bio-absorbable plug and Perclose (Perclase Inc.. Redwood City, California), which achieves the sam e goal by placing arterial sutures percutaneously to close the arteriotomy, have been approved for clinical use.(1,2) However, the incidence of vascul ar complications using these devices among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions, and especially for those treated with glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa platelet inhibition, have not been carefully studied.(3,4) W e sought to analyze in-hospital femoral complications after percutaneous co ronary interventions with the use of 3 hemostatic methods at our institutio n, Angio-Seal, Perclose, and manual compression during a time when the use of GP IIb/IIIa platelet inhibitors had become commonplace.