Stuck coronary angioplasty balloon: A surgical emergency

A 69-year-old patient underwent percutaneous coronary angioplasty and stenting of a calcified tight mid-circumflex coronary artery lesion between the origins of first two obtuse marginal arteries. The balloon got stuck inside the stent in a partially deflated condition and could not be retrieved. Under cardiopulmonary bypass, with cardioplegic arrest, the stent-balloon-catheter were extracted through coronary arteriotomy following endarterectomy of the calcified lesion. The patient had reversed saphenous vein grafts to the two obtuse marginal arteries.