Potential contribution of open-cell stent design to balloon entrapment and review of techniques to recover.

Balloon entrapment during coronary angioplasty is a rare but potentially disastrous complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), described during both angioplasty alone, as well as with stents. This report describes the case of an entrapped stent-balloon within an extremely calcified proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD) lesion, and reviews techniques and strategies that can be applied in similar situations. In this case, we suspect the open-cell design of the specific stent used, combined with the high radial force of the calcified lesion, led to a "pincer effect," and entanglement of the balloon material within the stent scaffolding. After exhaustion of all percutaneous options to retrieve the balloon, the patient was ultimately taken for urgent cardiac surgery for extraction of the balloon and vein patch of the LAD.