[Non-surgical extraction of intravascular foreign bodies in children. Experience with 8 cases]. / Extracción no quirúrgica de cuerpos extraños intravasculares en niños. Experiencia en 8 casos.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Foreign body retrieval in the catheter room is a useful procedure at any age, but, although its interest, few reports of such technique have been reported in children. METHODS: We review and present our experience in 8 children, aged 5 days to 11 years, five of them having congenital hearts defects. RESULTS: We retrieved 4 catheter fragments, 2 endocardial electrode catheter tips, 1 Rashkind 12 mm. PDA umbrella, and 1 detachable Jackson coil. All of them were placed in systemic veins, right heart chambers or pulmonary arteries. We used biplane fluoroscopy and percutaneous right femoral vein puncture in all cases. Goose-Neck (Microvena Corporation) snares were used in 5 patients, hand made snares in 2 and a Swan-Ganz catheter in one. In 4 cases, the snare was introduced trough a Mullins long sheath and the foreign body pulled into its distal end, in order to bring it out of the femoral vein. Six foreign bodies came off the femoral vein: 4 trough the puncture site and 2 needing a venous cut-down. The two remaining foreign bodies, stopped while pulling at the common iliac vein and a minor surgical procedure was needed for final extraction. CONCLUSIONS: Therapeutic catheterization is the technique of choice for intravascular foreign body retrieval in children.

[Unilateral agenesis of the pulmonary artery. Experience with 4 cases]. / Agenesia unilateral de la arteria pulmonar. Experiencia en 4 casos.

We present our experience with four cases of unilateral pulmonary agenesis, 3 of the right artery and the other one of the left. Two of the patients had pulmonary hypertension and one of them died at two years of age. All cases were diagnosed by using pulmonary angiography. Aortography demonstrated the absence of circulatory supply to the lung and a contralateral aortic arch to the absent pulmonary artery. We have performed a review of the literature with an emphasis on the diagnostic aspects of this condition, and discuss the considerations for possible surgery in symptomatic patients.

[Tumors of cardiac ventricles (author's transl)]. / Tumores cardíacos ventriculares

Clinical and pathological findings are reported in 3 cases of cardiac tumors involving the ventricular septum and free walls. In 2 cases death occurred at ages 4 hours and 3 1/2 years and the pathological study revealed the presence of rhabdomyomas in the heart and tuberous sclerosis in the brain. The cardiac involvement was much more pronounced in the newborn infant than in the 3 1/2-year-old boy. The remaining patient, is a 6-month-old infant who is still alive. An angiocardiographic study performed at age 1 1/2-months revealed the presence of multple filling defects which were localized in the ventricular septum and in the left ventricular free wall. The angiocardiography was indicated on the basis of a previous clinical situation of severe heart failure which had been difficult to bring under control. A discussion is also presented dealing with the most characteristic clinical features of cardiac tumors in infants and children.