[Removal of a foreign body from the superior vena cava by means of a urinary calculus remover].

It is reported on a successful removal of torn off or knotted parts of a heart catheter, which were extracted without difficulties from the superior vena cava and from the right atrium via the vena saphena magna by means of the catcher of ureteroliths after Dormia. One case in question was a 27-year-old male patient with pentalogy of Fallot, in whom was the danger of embolisation into the greater circulatory system on account of the torn off catheter conducting wire. In the other 57-year-old patient with acute myocardial infarction after knotting of a subclavian catheter a mechanical irritation of the endocardium with repeated appearance of ventricular fibrillation developed. Before deciding on a thoracotomy for the removal of parts of a catheter from the central vessels and the heart it should be tried before a transvasal extraction with the help of special catheters.