Coronary artery endarterectomy for retrieval of entrapped percutaneous angioplasty catheter.

A 70-year-old patient underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty of a calcified tight mid-right coronary artery lesion, when the balloon burst and could not be retrieved. Even on cardiopulmonary bypass, the catheter could not be extracted through a proximal aortotomy. The patient had a distal reversed saphenous vein graft inserted into the right coronary artery. The catheter was ultimately removed after an endarterectomy of the calcified lesion.