Table III.

Comparison of safety and efficacy outcomes between current study utilizing superficial transcubital venous access and notable studies using jugular and/or femoral access for catheter-directed thrombolysis in acute pulmonary embolism

Variable	Jugular access	Femoral access	Cubital access
ULTIMA study [27] Femoral vein N = 30 pts		100% placement success No major bleeding 3 minor bleeding events (10%)
SEATTLE II study [28] Common femoral vein in 85.6% of cases N = 150 pts		97.5% placement success 16 major bleeding events within 72 h of procedure (10.7%) 14 GUSTO moderate bleeding events (9.3%)
Pelliccia et al. [29] Femoral vein Percutaneous rheolytic thrombectomy N = 33 pts		97% procedural success No major bleeding events 9 transient periprocedural side effects (27.2%) 4 (12.1%) cases of anemia
PERFECT study [30] Jugular or femoral access N = 101 pts	Transjugular or transfemoral access: 85.7% clinical success in massive PE 97.3% clinical success in submassive PE 12.9% of minor bleeding events No major procedure-related complications, no major bleeding and no hemorrhagic strokes
Present study Superficial cubital vein N = 27			100% clinical success 2 (7.4%) bleeding events that required physician intervention No procedure-related complications, no major bleeding or hemorrhagic strokes