Anesth Analg 2003;96:1235-1236
© 2003 International Anesthesia Research Society
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Entrapment of an Exchange Wire by an Inferior Vena Caval Filter: A Technique for Removal
Michael E. Goldberg, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology, Chief, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Camden, NJ
To the Editor:
I read with interest the article by Munir and Chien (1) describing an in-situ technique to relieve entrapment of a J-Tip guide wire within an inferior vena cava filter. In their article they suggest that this hasn’t been described in the anesthesia literature. However, we need to point out that we previously described entrapment of an exchange wire by an inferior vena cava filter in the Anesthesia literature (Journal of Clinical Anesthesia 11:609–14, 1999). In this article we did a brief review of the history of this event and discussed a technique for removal, complete with radiographic and external photographs. We agree with Munir and Chien that this is a complication that needs more attention by the anesthesiologists placing central catheters and I feel their article would be more complete if it included information already published in the anesthesia literature.
Reference
- Munir MA, Chien SQ. An in situ technique to retrieve an entrapped J-tip guide wire from an inferior vena cava filter. Anesth Analg 2002; 95: 308–9.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
Response
Muhammad A. Munir, MD, and
Shelby Chien, MD
Department of Anesthesiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205
In Response:
We appreciate Dr. Goldberg’s comments about our case report (1). We would like to point out that we didn’t suggest in our article that entrapment of guidewire hasn’t been described in anesthesia literature. We referenced a letter to the editor in Anesthesiology describing entrapment of a guidewire.
We performed an exhaustive search using MEDLINE and a hand-search of all references. Uppot et al (3), performed a comprehensive review of the literature and reported all cases published in the literature since 1993. This review failed to recognize the case report by Dr. Goldberg (4). We reviewed all articles and references to evaluate described techniques for retrieval of a guidewire. Letters to the editor (Drummond, JC et al (2); Rosenblum, JD et al (5)) were hand-searched, reviewed and added to the reference list of our article. None of the other authors cited Dr. Goldberg’s case report. A MEDLINE search using keywords identified by Dr. Goldberg does not retrieve his case report. It appears that even popular search engines like MEDLINE are not faultless.
We wanted to primarily present the novel in situ technique in our case report. We recommended that In situ technique may be used in retrieval of entrapped guidewire before any complex techniques are applied.
References
- Munir MA, Chien SQ. An In situ technique to retrieve an entrapped J-tip guidewire from an inferior vena cava filter. Anesth Analg 2002; 95: 308–9.
- Drummond JC, Spaeth JP, and Dharan M. The IJ guide-wire is "stuck." Anesthesiology 1997; 86 (3): 745–6.[Web of Science][Medline]
- Uppot RN, et al. Entanglement of guidewires by vena cava filters during central venous catheter insertion: report of three cases and a review of the literature. Delaware Medical Journal 2000; 72 (2): 69–73.[Medline]
- Goldberg ME, Principato RE, Diamond SM, et al. Entrapment of an exchange wire by an inferior vena caval filter: a technique for removal. J Clinc Anesth 1999; 11: 609–14.[Web of Science][Medline]
- Rosenblum JD and Boyle CM. Percutaneous retrieval of a vena-tech filter displaced during central line placement. AJR. American Journal of Roentgenology 1996 166 (4): 994–5.[Web of Science][Medline]
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