How to extract a losing intra-aortic balloon pump guide wire

Manouchehr Hekmat (Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shahid Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.)
Hamid Ghaderi (Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Chamran Heart Center Hospital, Isfahan University of Medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran.)
Seyedeh Adeleh Mirjafari (Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.)
Mehran Shahzamani (Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Chamran Heart Center Hospital, Isfahan University of Medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran.)
Gholamreza Masoumi (Department of Cardiac Anesthesiology, Chamran Heart Center Hospital, Isfahan University of Medical sciences, Isfahan, Iran.)

International Journal of Cardiovascular Practice
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2018)

Guidewire loss is a serious complication that in case of a complete wire loss could cause death in about 20% of cases. Although it is essential to retrieve an intravenous foreign body as soon as possible, there are only a few recommendations regarding the removal of an intra-arterial foreign body. This study reports on a rare complication of guidewire loss during the insertion of an Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP), which has not yet been reported in the literature. The approach to this problem has been described, including the extraction time and the technique.