Fig. 9.

Forest plot of unadjusted odds ratios (ORs; 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) for mortality after primary percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction undergoing radial artery access (RA) compared with femoral artery access (FA). A total of 12,944 patients were analyzed for mortality outcomes, 4329 (33%) of whom underwent RA and 8615 (67%) of whom underwent FA. A total of 520 patients (4%) died during follow-up. In the meta-analysis, RA was associated with an overall reduction in mortality (2.8% vs 4.6%, OR 0.61, 95% CI 0.49–0.76, P < 0.001). Benefits were observed in both randomized controlled trials (3.4% vs 5.8%, OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.39–0.82, P < 0.003) and cohort studies (2.6% vs 4.4%, OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.48–0.84, P = 0.002).