Successful multi-step catheter intervention for thrombotic inferior vena cava filter retrieval

Abstract A 45-year-old man, who was implanted with an inferior vena cava (IVC) filter in his infrarenal IVC, had a complication of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) propagation from the IVC, beyond the IVC filter, to the right calf and left external iliac veins. The entire IVC filter was covered with a massive thrombus. We first decided to retrieve the IVC filter itself, which was suspected of causing metallic allergy. The thrombotic IVC filter was successfully retrieved using multi-step catheter intervention. To our knowledge, this is the first case report to describe successful multi-step catheter intervention for retrieval of an IVC filter covered with a massive thrombus.