Percutaneous unknotting of intravascular catheters and retrieval of catheter fragments.

During a 5-year period, percutaneous unknotting of knotted catheters or retrieval of intravascular catheter fragments was performed in 21 patients by various interventional radiologic techniques. Eight of nine knotted Swan-Ganz catheters were successfully released, whereas one required the assistance of a surgical cutdown under local anesthesia; 10 of 11 embolized catheter fragments in various locations were retrieved successfully. One failure occurred with complication of peripheral embolization in the lung. Four case reports are presented. The overall success rate was 95%.