Failure of Fluoroscopy and Success of Intravascular Ultrasound to Locate an Intracoronary Embolized Palmaz-Schatz Stent

We describe a patient in whom one half (disarticulated) Palmaz-Schatz stent was lost during a failed stenting procedure of an ostial left anterior coronary artery (LAD) stenosis. The embolized stent could not be located by fluoroscopy and was found in the left main coronary artery by intravascular ultrasound. The stent could not be removed using a retrieval device and was successfully deployed in the left main coronary artery by high-pressure balloon dilatation. Subsequently, LAD stenosis was successfully treated with deployment of two additional half Palmaz-Schatz stents.