Strecker stent migration to the pulmonary artery: long-term result of a “wait-and-see attitude”

Abstract

Accidental dislodgement of an endoprosthesis into the right cavities or the pulmonary artery is a rarely described complication of percutaneous venous stenting. In such cases the migrated stent needs to be promptly extracted by percutaneous techniques in order to avoid any major complication. We report the first case of a delayed Strecker stent migration from the left inominate vein into the right pulmonary artery, successfully managed with anticoagulant therapy and a “wait-and-see” attitude. The advanced stage-disease (metastatic cancer patient) and the large-caliber stent in a disease-free pulmonary artery led us to adopt this unorthodox attitude, as compared with the current clinical practice.