Access guidewires

Access guidewires are interventional procedures wires used during the first steps of interventions, to secure stable access and sheaths/catheter insertion. They are quickly exchanged for a navigation wire thereafter.

The most common access wires are¹:

• Cope Mandril wire

• Nitrex wire

Properties

These wires are designed to be as atraumatic as possible, and they generally are:

• short

• 0.018-inch (comes with a standard 21-gauge micropuncture set)

• a floppy straight atraumatic tip

• have a metal core without an outer braided layer¹

• hydrophobic

  • because hydrophilic wires are slippery and hard to stabilize during the initial exchanges

  • the needle tip may shear the hydrophilic wire coating with subsequent embolization²

See also

• guidewires