The preponderance of posterior circulatory events is independent of the route of cardiac catheterization.

Central nervous system complications of cardiac catheterization are most often attributed to embolic events that occur at the time of catheter manipulation. Nevertheless, the reason that over 50% of these events are localized to the posterior circulation remains unexplained. One potential explanation offered for this preponderance is the use of the brachial artery approach. In this report, we examined the relation between the route of catheterization and central nervous system complications.