Knuckle wire technique in percutaneous coronary intervention of chronic total occlusion: Knuckle wire technique.

In percutaneous coronary intervention, the knuckle wire technique is one of the approaches to cross the long and ambiguous course of the occluded segment. However, this technique is generally used as a last alternative, when all other techniques fail. Although knuckle wiring expedites chronic total occlusion crossing, it can also complicate the percutaneous coronary intervention strategy irreversibly. Therefore, understanding the various aspects of the knuckle wire technique is a prerequisite in a chronic total occlusion setting. The authors herein intend to describe in detail the knuckle wire technique and its safe and effective approach in various chronic total occlusion wiring strategies, while befitting to the scope of a mainstream interventionist.