New plastic-coated coaxial catheter system for superselective hepatic catheterization: technical note.

With the use of a new improved coaxial catheter system, superselective hepatic catheterization has become easier. The improvements consist of a decrease in the outer and an increase in the inner diameters of the coaxial catheters from 0.98 to 0.96 mm and from 0.55 to 0.65 mm, respectively, and thickening of core guidewire material from 0.014 inch (0.35 mm) to 0.018 inch (0.40 mm). With this new catheter system, it is possible to inject contrast medium (iopamidol 300) at a higher rate (3 ml/sec) and gelatin sponge particles instead of gelatin powder for arterial embolization. The success rates for superselective catheterization using conventional (n = 10 procedures) and the improved coaxial catheter systems (n = 7) were 30% and 86%, respectively.