• Anne Marie Cahill, Deddeh Ballah, Paula Hernandez, and Lucia Fontalvo.
• Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 34th Street and Civic Center Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. cahill@email.chop.edu
• Pediatr Radiol. 2012 Jan 1; 42 (1): 24-31.

BackgroundThe use of vascular lines both venous and arterial in children has significantly increased in the last decade with the potential risk that an intravascular device may become an intravascular foreign body. Percutaneous retrieval by interventional radiology has become an accepted method of foreign body removal.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to describe a single center's experience of percutaneous intravascular foreign body removal in pediatric patients.Materials And MethodsBetween January 2000 and December 2008, 18 patients underwent percutaneous intravascular foreign body retrieval as a complication of venous access devices. The mean catheter days were 181.2 catheter days (1 to 1,146 days). A retrospective review was performed and demographic data and clinical information were recorded, including type, duration, location of access device, embolization location and retrieval technique.ResultsEighteen of 19 (94.7%) retrievals were performed with single-loop snares and 1/19 (5.3%) was a triple-loop snare. Seventeen of 19 (89.5%) retrievals were successful. One unsuccessful retrieval was successfully removed by surgery, while the other was retained.ConclusionPercutaneous intravascular foreign body retrieval by interventional radiologists is a safe and effective method of retrieving embolized fragments from venous access devices in pediatric patients.

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