The autoperfusion balloon catheter with special attention to its use as a bail-out device.

The most serious complication of coronary angioplasty is acute vessel closure and/or persistent major dissection. In these cases the autoperfusion balloon is probably a good solution to "tack" the dissection flap against the vessel wall and to establish flow with prolonged inflations. In this short overview we review the literature and give guidelines for the use of autoperfusion balloon catheters as a bail-out device.