An unusual case of an angioplasty wire entrapped and fractured within the struts of a recently implanted coronary stent: Treatment with the implantation of a “jailing” stent

Guide wire fracture during percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) is a well-known, rare but potentially serious complication. The intravascularly retained wire fragments may cause thrombus formation, distal embolization, or even perforation.1 In a large series of 2238 consecutive PCIs, only 2 cases of entrapped guide wires (0.08%) were reported.2 This type of PCI complication has been recognized since a long time, with the first cases reported in the late 1980s.3 Since then, the overall experience of interventional cardiologists has greatly increased and the materials used have been greatly improved. Nevertheless, involvement in more complex and demanding interventions (i.e., bifurcation lesions or chronic total occlusions) has kept the risk of this complication rather constant.

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