They go through the arm to reach the leg so they can put a stent in the leg. It’s safer for the patient to go through the arm because if they go through the thigh or leg, there is a higher chance of haemorrhage and the patient also has to remain completely flat for hours after surgery, which can affect breathing.
From my bf: "It's definitely an approach, but the text said 'insert a stent into the radial artery', so they are still wrong. The stent is deployed in the iliac artery. As well, the radial approach is not the default choice at least by IR or vascular here in (place we live) because of the risk of arterial spasm and the limitation in the size of the catheter and stent you can advance through the radial artery.
Does he mean small?
And the second pic in the #11 looks like Christ Evans