A 59-year-old female was admitted for non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction and Killip class 3 heart failure with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 30%. Coronary angiogram showed moderate to severe stenosis over the ostial-proximal left anterior descending artery with minor disease over the left circumflex artery and right coronary artery. We describe a complication encountered where a protruding stent was weakened and elongated during our attempts to remove it, risking possible breakage, stent embolization, and long stent protrusion inside the aorta. We then describe treatment with what we call the alpha-loop snaring technique, which, to our knowledge, is the first report describing this novel approach, which can salvage a failing snaring attempt of a completely deployed and dislodged coronary stent.
Keywords: IVUS; PCI; angioplasty,; coronary; deformed stent; stent; snaring.