Complications Encountered During Arterial Embolectomy with the Fogarty Balloon Catheter

Abstract

The Fogarty arterial embolectomy catheter, while indispensible in the armamentarium of the vascular surgeon, is not an entirely benign instrument. A case is described in which the balloon was lost in its entirety from the catheter and immediately retrieved using a second identical instrument. A comprehensive survey of the literature reveals that a variety of arterial injuries have occurred during the use of the Fogarty catheter. Each of the major ones is discussed in depth. Amongst the most serious are arterial perforation and rupture occasionally followed by loss of the involved extremity.

All previously reported complications following use of the Fogarty catheter are tabulated and reviewed. Additionally, a formal classification of these complications is proposed.

Since the time of its introduction in 1963¹ the Fogarty balloon-tipped catheter has become an indispensible tool in the armamentarium of the vascular surgeon. Its use for arterial embolectomy has been responsible for the salvage of many thousands of limbs. Over the course of the past decade, however, a number of complications referable to this instrument have appeared in the literature. These include perforation of vessels, intimal disruption and foreign body embolization amongst others. To our knowledge, however, there has been only one reported case of a balloon having been lost intra-arterially in toto without obvious cause.² It is the purpose of this paper to present the second such case where the balloon, which had separated entirely from the catheter during the course of an arterial embolectomy, was later retrieved by passage of a second Fogarty catheter. In addition, a comprehen sive review of the literature is undertaken, and all arterial complications reported to date summarized and tabulated.