ANATOLIAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY, cilt.25, sa.9, ss.671-672, 2021 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus, TRDizin)
Introduction The totally implantable venous access device (TIVAD) is widely used for drug access or infusion during cancer treatment (1). A central venous catheter can improve the quality of the patient’s life by administering chemotherapy agents and drugs. Sometimes, several complications associated with the use of these devices can be seen. Fracture of the catheter may be the most serious complications, which could lead to pulmonary embolism, arrhythmic events, endocarditis, and perforation of the myocardium; although it occurs in around 1% of the patients (2). About 90% of foreign materials can be extracted by percutaneous transcatheter removal technique, a minimally invasive approach (3). Forceps, basket, gooseneck snare, and triple loops snare were reported to retrieve the fractured catheter successfully (4). To the best of our knowledge, herein, we report the first case of successful percutaneous transvenous removal of a fractured chemotherapy port catheter with a novel technique, balloon-supported retrieval.