Rescue of trapped Rotablator with knuckle technique for chronic total occlusion

A 71-year-old man with Chagas disease and stable angina on minimum exertion underwent coronary computed tomography angiography and cine angiography that revealed heavily calcified multivessel disease involving the left main artery (LM). Due to the degree of calcification, it was decided to perform rotablation. The first-stage percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with rotablation was performed on the LM, left anterior descending artery and second diagonal branch without complications. Almost 30 days later he returned for right coronary artery (RCA) PCI. The proposed strategy was rotational atherectomy in the posterior descending artery (PDA) and right posterolateral artery (RPLA) with a 1.5 mm burr, followed by implantation of two drug-eluting stents (DES). Through right femoral artery access the RPLA lesion was ablated with success. As there were no signs of dissection and TIMI 3 flow was maintained, the 0.009″ RotaWire was repositioned to cross the PDA lesion and debulking of the lesion was performed. After two attempts we succeeded in crossing the lesion with the 1.5 mm burr, however entrapment of the burr ensued. The system was pulled back until the guiding catheter penetrated deep into the RCA, and attempts were made to release the Rotablator by moving it forward and backward, but the burr did not even spin. The contralateral femoral artery was therefore punctured and a 6F JR guiding catheter was inserted, in order to move a guidewire and small angioplasty balloon tangentially to the burr, but without success. Finally we advanced the guidewire using the 'knuckle' technique, taking advantage of the kinking of the distal portion of the PT2 guidewire, performing a subintimal dissection and re-entry, and could then easily cross the balloon, inflate it and release the trapped burr. Through the 6F system, two programmed and one bailout DES were successfully implanted in the PDA, RPLA and RCA, obtaining final TIMI 3 flow without complications.