Flow-directed balloon catheterization for aortofemoral arteriography using the axillary artery approach.

An axillary artery approach is occasionally necessary in the evaluation of the abdominal aorta and peripheral arteries in patients with severe and complicated arteriosclerotic disease. Difficulty may be encountered in directing the catheter into the descending aorta in patients with extremely tortuous and elongated aortic arches. Use of flow directed angiographic balloon catheters has made abdominal, pelvic, and lower extremity arteriography readily obtainable using an axillary approach when other methods failed and translumbar aortography was considered hazardous. This might be particularly useful in patients with high abdominal aortic occlusions, in anticoagulated patients, in patients with abdominal aortic grafts, and in some patients with small aortas displaced to the right.