Percutaneous Removal of Flexible Foreign Body from the Heart

Abstract

The complication of catheter embolization has been reported, and several technics have been designed for nonsurgical removal of such foreign bodies from the heart (1, 3, 4). In the case herein reported, a simple percutaneous approach toward removal of the catheter fragment is described. Case Report A 50-year-old psychiatric patient had a catheter fragment sheared off at the needle tip following right subclavian vein puncture for administration of medication. A chest radiograph revealed this fragment lying partially within 'the right ventricle with the other end in the superior vena cava. With the usual catheter materials in the X-ray Department, a simple snare-loop device was made. A 125-cm, 0.025-inch guide wire was passed through a white (opaque) P.E. catheter (0.037 inch I.D. × 0.054 O.D.). This in turn was passed through a 240 P.E. catheter 30 cm long, and the wire with the small P.E. cover was doubled back into the outside sleeve with the loop formed as indicated in Figure 1. The loop wire was then b...