Prevalence of The Arterial Hand Dominance Using the Modified Allen Test and Pulse Oximetry among Plastic Surgery Patients

Abstract

Background: The ulnar and radial arteries are the major source of blood supply in the hand, as they form the superficial and deep palmar arches. Arterial hand circulation is one of the most complicated arterial trees and connections in the body, with tremendous variations in its structure. This study aimed to evaluate whether the ulnar artery or radial artery is the dominant artery in hand circulation among plastic surgery patients at King Khalid University Hospital and to correlate the arterial hand dominance with handedness and gender. Methods: This is an analytical cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on plastic surgery patients. The sampling method is purposive sampling. The calculated sample size is 28; however, 100 participants have been enlisted in the study. The data have been collected using the modified Allen test with a pulse oximeter. Results: The collective prevalence of dual arterial dominance in our study was 69% compared with 56% and 30% for Little et al (P = 0.013) and Fuhrman et al (P < 0.001), respectively. With regard to gender, women were more likely to have a dual arterial blood supply than men, with the frequency values of 85% and 58.3% for women and men, respectively (P = 0.017). Conclusions: Our study found that dual arterial supply is predominant among our participants, with 69% of our participants possessing a dual arterial supply, while 18% and 13% constitute the prevalence of radial and ulnar dominance, respectively. This contrasts with what has been reported previously in the literature.