What is the purpose of a microcatheter in PCI?

• A. Access small side branches, navigate through CTOs, deliver devices or wire micro-catheter support.
• B. Replace guiding catheter
• C. Visualize vessels
• D. Deliver stents without wires

Answer: (A)

A microcatheter is used to reach tiny side branches and difficult segments while giving extra support for crossing lesions and delivering devices. Its slender, flexible tip lets you navigate through tortuous vessels and collateral channels that a standard guide catheter can’t access, and it can be advanced over a specialized wire to cross chronic total occlusions. Once in position, it serves as a conduit to deliver wires or small devices and can provide backup support to advance equipment through challenging anatomy, and it can enable selective contrast injections to better visualize the microvasculature when needed. It does not replace the guiding catheter, and delivering stents typically requires a guidewire and appropriate guiding access; visualization is primarily achieved with imaging, not solely by the microcatheter.