Successful percutaneous removal of retained broken coronary angioplasty guidewire.

The use of a pigtail left ventriculography catheter to retrieve a coronary angioplasty guidewire that had become entrapped in a small coronary artery and broken off with the proximal end in the descending thoracic aorta is reported. A pigtail catheter was advanced to the ascending aorta and twirled, winding the wire around it, removing the wire from the small artery.