Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guided fixation of an accidentally crushed coronary stent

Stent deployment during coronary intervention has become more and more common recently. Inappropriate stent deployment may lead to unexpected high mortality and morbidity rates. A 62 year-old man with unstable angina presented with a bifurcation lesion after diagnostic coronary angiography. A drug-eluting stent was successfully deployed across the bifurcation lesion. However, after wire exchange and rewiring followed by high pressure balloon postdilatation, the stent was accidentally crushed under IVUS guidance. We used a looping wire technique and successfully redilated the crushed instent portion. This case suggests interventionists should not always change the wire before stent well deployment and should bear in mind the value of IVUS in managing such a complication.