Use of a pigtail catheter to engage a difficult internal mammary artery.
Increasing use of bilateral internal mammary arteries for coronary surgery will increase the number of interventions in these grafts. Such interventions may be technically challenging because of often tortuous and angulated vessels. We describe a technique to intubate an acutely angulated right internal mammary artery that was inaccessible with conventional catheters.
Herzzentrum Wuppertal, Medizinische Klinik 3, Wuppertal, Germany. lapp@klinikum-wuppertal.de
Harald
H
Lapp
Georg
G
Haltern
Thomas
T
Kranz
Guido
G
Boerrigter
Mark
M
Horlitz
Michael
M
Klein
Ingo
I
Krakau
Hartmut
H
Guelker
D002404:Catheterization; D006801:Humans; D007387:Internal Mammary-Coronary Artery Anastomosis; D007440:Intubation; D008297:Male; D008323:Mammary Arteries; D008875:Middle Aged