According to this study:

* Rates of vascular access site complications are not affected by the administration of oral diazepam before cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention.

* Patients reported periprocedural pain less often after such premedication, but it had no effect on anxiety.

This study evaluated the effects of oral diazepam on vascular access site complications and on the patient's assessment of pain and anxiety in patients undergoing coronary angiography, percutaneous coronary intervention, or both.

The researchers enrolled 760 patients presenting for the procedures at a single large regional teaching hospital, assigning them to a treatment group (diazepam) or to a control group (no treatment) on alternating weeks.

The results showed no statistically significant difference between the treatment group and the control group in terms of the number of adverse events that occurred, nor was there a statistically significant difference in level of periprocedural anxiety. But patients who received diazepam experienced periprocedural pain significantly less often than did the patients in the control group.

The authors conclude that the administration of oral diazepam as premedication to patients scheduled for coronary catheterization or percutaneous coronary intervention is justified. But the absence of a reduction of anxiety level, the effect intended in the preprocedural use of oral diazepam, raises the question of whether other medications could be used for that purpose.

AK