Successful treatment of a nondeflatable balloon atrial septostomy catheter.

We present a rare complication of balloon atrial septostomy in an infant with complete transposition of the great arteries and review the management of this problem. The balloon could not be deflated after the eighth pass across the atrial septum. We punctured the balloon with a stylet which was passed through the circulation lumen of the double-lumen septostomy catheter. We suggest that this method should once be tried before other methods are employed.