Arterial catheter (arterial line)
A short, rigid catheter inserted percutaneously into a peripheral artery, most commonly the radial artery, and connected to a pressure transducer system.
How it is used
Used to monitor blood pressure continuously and in real time during major surgery or in unstable patients, and to obtain repeated arterial blood gas samples.
Clinical tip
Medications should never be administered through it, since accidental intra-arterial injection can cause severe tissue injury.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-05.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.