INTRODUCTION:
Indwelling arterial catheters are used routinely for continuous haemodynamic monitoring and for obtaining repetitive blood samples during major surgery and in critically ill patients. The radial artery is the most common site for catheterisation. Major complications such as ischaemic insult, sepsis and pseudoaneurysm formation are rare, occurring in fewer than 1% of cases(1). We describe two cases of patients undergoing major surgical and endovascular interventions in which arterial catheterisation was associated with acute radial arterial thrombosis and radial ischaemic neuropathy.