Suction tip migration to internal iliac vein during cardiac surgery

ABSTRACT

During the cannulation of the inferior vena cava in a 29-year-old patient undergoing mitral and aortic valve replacement, the pump suction tip was inadvertently lost in the right atrium. After starting CPB and cardioplegic arrest of the heart, the right atrium and ventricle were searched for the foreign body, but it became evident by reontgenography that the foreign body had migrated to the pelvic veins. At the end of the operation, extraction with a Fogarty catheter was attempted but was not successful and the foreign body was extracted via laparatomy