The technique involves placing a needle through the skin and into a blood vessel, such as an artery or vein, until bleedback is achieved.
This is followed by introduction of a flexible "introducer guide wire" to define the pathway through the skin and into the passageway or "lumen" of the blood vessel.
The benefit of a percutaneous access is in the ease of introducing devices into the patient without the use of large cut downs, which can be painful and in some cases can bleed out or become infected.
A percutaneous access requires only a very small hole through the skin, which seals easily, and heals very quickly compared to a surgical cut down.
Percutaneous access and procedures frequently refer to catheter procedures such as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) ballooning, stent delivery, filter delivery, cardiac ablation, and peripheral or neurovascular catheter procedures but also refers to a device that is implanted in the body, such as a heart pump (LVAD), and receives power through a lead that passes through the skin to a battery pack outside the body.