title: Effects of ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterization: an updated meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous meta-analyses have shown that ultrasound guidance is an effective technique for radial artery catheterization. However, these reports neglected to include several non-English language studies. Therefore, an updated meta-analysis including more eligible studies was performed to assess the effectiveness of ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eligible studies were identified by systematically searching PubMed, EMBASE, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure literature databases. The outcome measure was the rate of first-attempt success. Two investigators identified the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for inclusion and independently extracted data from these RCTs. The quality of the included studies was evaluated using the Jadad score. The relative risk (RR) for dichotomous outcomes and the 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated and pooled using a random-effects model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven RCTs involving 803 patients met the inclusion criteria. Ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterization was generally associated with a 47% improvement, as compared with the palpation technique, in terms of the rate of first-attempt success (RR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.22-1.76; P < .0001). Specifically, the ultrasound-guided technique significantly improved the rate of first-attempt success for adult (RR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.13-1.72; P = .002) and pediatric (RR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.15-2.47; P = .008) patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adult and pediatric patients benefited from ultrasound-guided radial artery catheterization in terms of the rate of first-attempt success. Given the potential bias and significant heterogeneity of the available data in the present study, further investigation is required to confirm the present findings and to identify other effects of the ultrasound-guided technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasonography, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250000, Shandong, China; Department of Ultrasonography, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Bing
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Ultrasonography, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China.
authors.forename: Fu-Quan
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China. Electronic address: bzyxy3013@163.com.
authors.forename: Xiao-Zhi
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Binzhou Medical University, Binzhou 256603, China. Electronic address: lcjbyfy@126.com.
authors.forename: Chang-Jun
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lv
mesh_terms: D002406:Catheterization, Peripheral / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D017534:Radial Artery; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional