ABSTRACT
Percutaneous diagnostic and therapeutic procedures involving the heart and the circulation have become increasingly common and with new developments, this increase has become exponential. The past decade alone has seen a surge not only in the number of cardiovascular procedures undertaken but also in their complexity. Unquestionably, the most common intravascular foreign body that adult cardiologists are likely to come across is the coronary stent. With advances in technology allowing greater stent deliverability, safety and effectiveness, the numbers deployed have risen exponentially over the past decade. Ensuring the guidewire position through the lumen of the stent is very important and the 'small balloon technique' can be initially considered. Another technique that has been employed is using a second guidewire and twisting the wires together to trap the stent and then retrieving the entire system including the guiding catheter. Guidewires of various widths and lengths are used widely for vascular access as well as for interventional procedures.
