Stenting of Vertebral Artery Origin with the Buddy Wire Technique in Tortuous Subclavian Artery

Abstract

Tortuous vasculature is a common reason for failure to stabilize a guiding catheter in an appropiate position and is associated with a higher incidence of vascular complications. In such a case, the guiding catheter often buckles into the aorta during an attempt to place the balloon or stent. In this report, we used the buddy wire technique to support the guiding catheter, and we passed through the vertebral artery origin stenosis with the help of a microcatheter-microguidewire combination which enabled stent deployment. We kept the buddy wire through the guiding catheter throughout the procedure and the 6F guiding catheter allowed passages of both buddy wire and stent system.