title: Guide catheter exchange techniques: bi-coaxial and other methods.
abstract: Maintaining the position of a guidewire across coronary artery lesions during angioplasty is important to allow rapid and reliable access. Stabilizing these small caliber angioplasty guidewires during guide catheter replacement is often difficult, if not impossible at times. This article reviews the techniques for exchanging guide catheters while maintaining coronary guidewire position. It also introduces the bi-coaxial guide catheter exchange technique.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Selig
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yazdanfar
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans