Aims: Excessive movement of coronary stents within the artery can make accurate stent placement difficult. This study assessed the use of the floating-wire technique to reduce stent motion to improve placement accuracy.
Methods and results: During percutaneous coronary intervention, if excessive stent movement prevented accurate stent placement, the floating-wire technique was performed to reduce stent motion within the coronary artery during both stent positioning and deployment. Postprocedural angiograms were analyzed by two independent operators to measure the motion length of the stent delivery system relative to the coronary artery before and after using the floating-wire technique. The floating-wire technique was considered necessary in 19 patients. No procedural complications occurred. The extent of motion was markedly reduced by using the floating-wire technique (4.04 ± 1.25 mm to 1.11 ± 0.81 mm; P<.001).
Conclusions: The floating-wire technique is an effective and safe method to reduce stent movement and facilitate accurate stent deployment. This simple technique can be easily applied in any interventional cardiac catheterization laboratory without the need for additional training or equipment.