The snare catheter: a device for placing multiple guide wires.

Abstract

During the last several years, percutaneous catheterization procedures in the biliany tree, urinary tract, and abscesses have become routine procedures in most radiology departments. Most depend on the exchange of catheters over a guide wire. Occasionally, the guide wine becomes unavailable, either locked in a catheter on withdrawn accidentally from the target. To protect against these misfortunes, we and others [1] have recently taken to placing two guide wires in the target. The principle of the method to be described was conceived during a simple catheter guide-wine exchange of a Cope loop biliary drainage catheter [2], where the guide wire became locked (frozen) in the catheter. A snare catheter was used to place a second guide wine into the target, thereby maintaining the drainage tract. Subsequently, this method also has been used for routine placement of the second guide wire in manipulative procedures many times before catheters are exchanged.