Endovascular techniques and procedures, methods for removal of intravascular foreign bodies

The incidence of intravascular embolization of venous catheters reported in the world medical literature corresponds to 1% of all the described complications. However, its mortality rate may vary between 24 to 60%. Catheter malfunction is the most likely signal of embolization, since patients are usually asymptomatic.

To report the method of removing intravascular foreign bodies, catheters with the use of various endovascular techniques and procedures.

This is a two-year retrospective study of 12 patients: seven women and five men. The average age was 29 years (ranging from two months to 65 years).

Technical performance was 100% successful. Ten port-a-caths, one intra-cath and one PICC were extracted. The most common sites for the lodging of one of the ends of the intravascular foreign bodies were the right atrium (41.6%) and the right ventricle (33.3%). In 100% of the cases, only one venous access was used for extraction of foreign bodies, and in 91.6% of the cases (11 catheters) the femoral access was used. The loop-snare was used in 10 cases (83.3%). The most common cause of intravascular foreign body insertion was a catheter fracture, which occurred in 66.6% of the cases (eight cases). One major complication, the atrial fibrillation, occurred (8.3%), which was related to the intravascular foreign body extraction. The mortality rate in 30 days was zero.

Percutaneous retrieval of intravascular foreign bodies is considered gold standard treatment because it is a minimally invasive, relatively simple, safe procedure, with low complication rates compared to conventional surgical treatment.