A technique to retrieve stents dislodged in the coronary artery followed by fixation in the iliac artery by means of balloon angioplasty and peripheral stent deployment

An unwelcome complication of the increasingly applied technique of coronary stenting is stent dislodgment, which may cause arterial occlusion or distal embolization, both with potentially adverse sequel. Stent dislodgment tends to occur when negotiating a tortuous artery with a balloon-mounted stent, especially if the artery is irregularly calcified or when applying a rigid stent. We have successfully applied in several patients at our laboratory a technique to retrieve a dislodged stent from the coronary artery, tow it to the iliac artery, and then deploy it locally by a peripheral balloon when retrieval through the vascular sheath seems impossible. Finally, the retrieved stent is secured by local anchoring with a peripheral stent. This technique was found to be useful and may prevent further complications and more costly interventions and hence result in a more benign clinical course. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.