New catheter for tortuous vertebral artery.

The difficulty of catheterizing markedly tortuous vertebral arteries is well known to cerebral angiographers. When catheterization by the transfemoral approach fails, a left retrograde brachial flush injection or transax illary vertebral catheterization may be performed as alternative techniques in opacifying posterior fossa vessels . These additional approaches can be obviated by using a J tip catheter, tailored spec ifically for the very tortuous left vertebral artery origin.