Injecting lubricant into the guiding catheter enables stent deployment

The majority of percutaneous artery interventional failures is due to the inability to deploy stents in patients with tortuous arteries, fibrotic lesions and/or calcified plaque. Recent reports of lubricant-facilitated stent delivery have described the use of either dipping the stent into solution or applying the solution to the stent surface prior to insertion into the guiding catheter. This report demonstrates that injection of undiluted RotaGlide into the guiding catheter can better facilitate stent delivery into patients. Following unsuccessful stent placement, 2 cc of undiluted RotaGlide was injected into the guiding catheter by syringe with the undeployed stents just proximal to the lesion site. The stents were advanced and deployed without difficulty at the lesion site. This is the first report of RotaGlide being injected into the guiding catheter, resulting in what may be decreased friction of the buddy wire and/or stent. RotaGlide-facilitated stenting may be the best option when conventional techniques have failed.