Contralateral loop snare removal of a ruptured and entrapped angioplasty balloon.

We describe a technique that extracted a ruptured angioplasty balloon which had become entrapped by a calcified left common iliac artery stenosis. The balloon catheter had been advanced crossover from the right and could not be retracted directly into a sheath across the aortic bifurcation. Therefore, a guidewire was inserted through the balloon catheter and captured by a loop snare advanced from the left femoral artery. The loop snare was also used to free the balloon wings from the stenosis. The balloon was then pulled into a 10 Fr sheath and removed as a unit with the sheath.