title: Asymptomatic intracardiac migration of a Kirschner wire from the right rib.
abstract: We report the case of a 50-year old man diagnosed with intracardiac migration of a Kirschner wire (K-wire). The patient had undergone surgical fixation of rib fracture 32 months previously. Chest roentgenograms, chest computed tomographic scans and echocardiography revealed that one of the K-wires had migrated to the right ventricle. The K-wire was removed immediately. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported instance of asymptomatic intracardiac migration of a K-wire from the right rib.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Weizhi
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fenglin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Yifeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jingqun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D001864:Bone Wires / Q000009:adverse effects*; D020878:Device Removal; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012253:Rib Fractures / Q000601:surgery*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Foreign body; Intracardiac migration; Kirschner wire; Right ventricle