Surgical retrieval of broken, inflated angioplasty balloon catheter within intracoronary stent: A real emergency

Abstract

A 54-year old, hypertensive female patient underwent percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) followed by stenting of calcified chronic totally occluded right coronary artery. The post dilation balloon catheter got stuck and snapped during manipulations in inflated position within the stent, which could not be retrieved by nonsurgical interventions. Emergency surgery was performed to retrieve the stent along with an inflated balloon, followed by vein patch closure of arteriotomy and reversed saphenous vein graft anastomosis to right coronary artery and left anterior descending artery on cardiopulmonary bypass.

Keywords

• cardiopulmonary bypass
• coronary artery bypass graft
• intracoronary stent
• percutaneous coronary intervention