title: Embolization of an Amplatzer atrial septal closure device to the pulmonary artery.
abstract: A 44-year-old woman with a history of transient ischemic attack underwent closure of atrial septal defect with a 26 mm Amplatzer device. The device was released without residual shunt or impingement on intracardiac structures. Within seconds, the transesophageal echocardiography showed the initial dislodgement of the device from the atrial septum and its consequent slipping back into the right atrium close to the tricuspid valve. Soon after the device disappeared from the right atrium and it could be founded into the right ventricle under the tricuspid valve. The patient was transferred in the operating room for an emergency operation. The device could not be found in the right ventricle because its downstream migration. The Amplatzer septal occluder was identified by palpation into the pulmonary artery trunk: it was retrieved from the right ventricle through the pulmonary valve and the atrial septal defect was closed by running suture.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac surgery, G.Mazzini Hospital, Teramo, Italy. bruno_chiappini@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chiappini
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gregorini
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Eusanio
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciocca
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Villani
authors.forename: Ugo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Minuti
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Giancola
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Prosperi
authors.forename: Licia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrella
authors.forename: Saro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paparoni
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazzola
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal; D004868:Equipment Failure; D005260:Female; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000601:surgery*; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery*