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:
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