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

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