Flush catheters

Last revised by Yahya Baba on 7 Jun 2023

Flush catheters are a type of vascular catheter designed to allow high-flow injection rates (15 to 20 ml/s)1 into large vessels, for optimal aortograms and/or phlebograms.

The most common flush catheters are:

  • have multiple side holes placed typically on the shaft, behind the tip2

    • allows large-volume infusions and prevents vascular injury at the tip of the catheter during power injections

    • uniform dispersal of contrast media

    • minimal recoil

  • tip-shape designed to

    • help center the shaft in the vessel

    • avoid engagement and injection into a non-target vessel

  • blunt leading contours

    • to advance without a leading guidewire

  • high wall strength

  • low friction coefficient

Pigtail and tennis Racket catheter can also be used as a retained-fragment retriever, for recovering fragments of catheters/guidewires.

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