ENTRAPMENT OF A CORONARY STENT IN THE LEFT MAIN TRUNK - AN EASY METHOD FOR SURGICAL REMOVAL

The use of an intracoronary stent is usually indicated after the acute closure of a coronary vessel following percutaneous transluminal coro nary angioplasty. Plaque disruption and dissection, with subsequent sp asm and thrombosis, can be contained by this device. In the reported c ase, acute closure of the left anterior descending coronary artery and of a diagonal branch were caused by the entrapment of a stent proxima l to the coronary lesion that it was supposed to treat. An emergency c oronary artery bypass graft procedure was required together with remov al of the device because of the impending closure of the left main tru nk (the site of the stent entrapment). This was successfully performed by means of an easy method, which did not require direct incision of the left main trunk. The less invasive procedure described simplified the operation and probably played an important role in its favorable o utcome.