Guidewires for lower extremity artery angioplasty: a review.

The guidewire (GW) is probably the most important tool for the endovascular treatment of arterial obstructions. In fact, the treatment of a lesion is only possible when the GW is passed beyond the target lesion. Lower limb percutaneous arterial revascularisation can be achieved using a variety of GWs which may differ in calibre, body, tip or coating. As the choice of an appropriate GW is critical for the success of a lower limb artery angioplasty, knowledge of the properties and performances of different GWs should be well known in order to tailor the choice of the device to the lesion characteristics and location, as well as to the intended revascularisation strategy. The aim of the present paper is to describe the constructive characteristics of GWs for lower limb arterial revascularisation, and to evaluate groups of GWs for each segment of the lower limb arterial vasculature.