LAUSR

INTRODUCTION To perform a literature review of Stiff guidewires used in urology and to investigate if there is an official definition concerning the stiffness (shaft rigidity)of wires. MATERIALS AND METHODS A literature research was performed for all English written articles using database MEDLINE, Scopus, Google Scholar and the official websites of international companies. Guidewires from different companies were included. RESULTS We analyzed 14 different stiff guidewires from the companies Boston Scientific, Coloplast, Cook Medical, Olympus, Terumo, Rocamed and Bard Urological according to their characteristics. We found no concrete data regarding their stiffness on the official websites. In addition, there were few studies published about Amplatz Super Stiff (Boston Scientific), ZIP wire ™ Stiff Nitinol Hydrophilic (Boston Scientific), HiWire Stiff Nitinol Core Wire Guide (Cook Medical), Amplatz Fixed Core Wire Guide (Cook Medical) and Nicore TM nitinol Guidewire - Stiff (Bard Urological) whereas there were no available data for the majority of Stiff guidewires. CONCLUSION Stiff guidewires are listed in the catalogues of the companies without having any information for their classification. They are only divided to stiff and standard version without knowing the difference among them. The companies together with their manufacturers should adopt one common method in order to calculate and define stiffness of each guidewire.