14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-130

Coronary venous access using over the wire guiding catheter introduction

Roberto Neri, Antonio Silvio Cesario, PieroPalermo, DanielaBaragli, Maria Luisa d’Ettorre, Sergio Cavaglia, Giancarlo Gambelli.
Division of Cardiology G.B. Grassi Hospital, Rome, Italy

Introduction

Several different diagnostic and therapeutic procedures requiring catheter insertion into the coronary sinus (CS) and its branches have recently been proposed. Specifically designed coronary veins leads have to be introduced in the CS branches for pacing treatment of patients (pts) with severe heart failure^1-4. Epicardial mapping as well as transcoronary venous ablation of ventricular tachycardias requires the introduction of catheters into the CS venous system⁵. Preformed tip guiding catheters have been recently proposed to simplify the coronary venous access during these procedures. However, the insertion of these relatively stiff catheters, especially in large dilated hearts, may require multiple attempts with an increasing risk of damaging the soft tissue of the right atrium and of the CS. In this study we evaluated effectiveness and safety of an over the wire technique for the introduction of a guiding catheter into the CS in pts with severe heart failure candidates to left ventricular pacing.