Care of patients after cardiac catheterization and/or percutaneous coronary intervention is largely the responsibility of nurses. The identification of risk factors for vascular complications from these procedures is important for the development of protocols to prevent complications. This article describes a retrospective, descriptive, and correlational study of 11,119 patients who underwent cardiac catheterization and/or percutaneous intervention, with femoral artery access, in the years 2001 to 2003. Increased risk for vascular complications was found in patients who were older than 70 years, were female, had renal failure, underwent percutaneous intervention, and had a venous sheath.

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